Welcome to The Duality of Man, an original animanga role-play that features numerous supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, these various species have distanced themselves because of the war that occurred thousands of years ago, plaguing some with eyes that only see their dualism. While others meddle themself with their differences, two groups fight, each attempting to eliminate the other in for their definition of worldly peace. These two groups of the Terror Response Syndicate (TRS) and the Assembly of Phantoms (AP). With individuals fighting merely over their differences, it brings uncertainty to the outcome of this war.
We happily accept all role-players as long as they obey the rules and are capable of meeting our word count of 50. This does include those who are unfamiliar with this style of role-playing. The staff of The Duality of Man are willing to happily help those who are new to the role-playing world so they feel comfortable on site. Feel free to message the staff if you need help, they can be found here or in the site Discord and will gladly answer questions alongside calm concerns. If you have any suggestions we would love to hear them; guests may use the support board as a suggestion area as well. Should you decide to join, may I say welcome to the site and we all hope you enjoy your time here.
Yours Truely,
The Staff
season
Summer 2024
Heat has broken through into a glorious summer. The snow has entirely dried through the spring, leaving to the brilliance of the warmer months. Terror activity has risen as people are brought out of their homes, leaving the TRS in a position of consistent work. Each are attempting to maintain victory in the endless struggle for power.
Since the wonderful members of TDOM enjoy the site enough to play around on it, this thread is to assist with the site's tidying! Functionality is important and we want to make the site functional even if its activity will be minimal at best!
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"] Tessa’s smile faded as she studied the scene around her. It was hard to say how many people in a crowd like this would recognise her. She’d never wanted any sort of attention, but her position within a prominent AP family made her known from birth, and her betrayal brought the spotlight shining down on her even brighter. If she had truly fled to join the TRS she may have been able to lay low and there, but as an informant for the AP she’d been required to get to know people. There were just as many people calling her a friend as there were calling her a traitor, but none of them had the slightest clue who she really was. Maybe that’s why it was so tolerable. Even if she was the centre of attention from time to time it didn’t really matter because it wasn’t the real her that people were focused on.
“That sounds about right,” she sighed. Everyone needed time away from others every now and then. Whether they could actually get it was a different matter entirely. “Personally I like people I just don’t like this many. It’s like they lose who they are individually and just get lost in the flow of other people.”
Plus when there were this many people it was harder to know where a threat - either to her physical safety or her constant act - may come from. But as long as she was focused on this one person she would be able to distract long enough to get away if things turned south. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"] Although Tessa was slightly disappointed by Felix’s response, she kept her face neutral and prepared her next words in her mind. She hadn’t asked because she particularly cared what he thought of her past, she was merely trying to develop a baseline. She usually assumed any association with the AP was a red flag to most people, so the fact that he skipped over that to the assumption that she hated them for the things they’d done to try and destroy her actually put her in a better position than she’d been expecting.
”No it’s quite the opposite, really.” her lips spread into a smirk, “I’m not about to go on some patriotic rant about how the very idea of doing anything to help the AP disgusts me. I’m just trying to be up front. If you hadn’t heard I was raised by the Assembly and found out later it would look like I was trying to hide things. A lot of people are naturally suspicious of me so I like to make a point of not hiding anything. I’m an open book.” That was a policy she lived by. If she was open on little things it made most people assume she was safe to let down their guard around too.
”Don’t worry, I’m not basing an argument on character witness either. But if you want to talk about basing an argument on faulty facts, your suspicions are circumstantial at best. You gave me that information, yes, but there are people higher than me that I report to. In an organisation this big it’s hard to guarantee how many people actually know even the best kept secrets. It could be that the AP has an informant with access to some high clearance databases. Or it could be that the information you received was leaked by the AP with the intention of setting up the TRS and making them drop their guard. It wouldn’t be an unwise plan on their part.” She kept her tone as even as she could. She didn’t want him to get defensive but she needed him to see the holes in his theory. That would be the fastest way to bring all of this to an end. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"] Tessa was aware of Bruce casting the occasional glance in her direction, just as she was aware of him keeping tabs on the rest of their surroundings. It must have been a strange job to always have to be on guard, especially considering the casual relationship he seemed to have with his charge. She herself spent a lot of time paying attention to her surroundings, but her focus was more on determining how others were seeing her and even then she almost always had the occasional opportunity to relax at some point.
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Tessa brushed aside her errant thoughts and nodded as both Felix and Bruce declined her offer to grab them anything. ”Alright, I’ll catch up with you guys soon then,” she said.
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She headed off to the line which surprisingly had a couple of people in it despite the time of day and grabbed a burger and some fries as the line edged forward. Slowly a plan started to formulate in her mind. If she got emotional things could go downhill very quickly. She was usually good at keeping a handle on any genuine emotions. They were there, but they were murky, streaming in with their faded, twisted rays like the sun at the bottom of the ocean. It was arrogance that shone through the brightest, and it was that same arrogance that could get her in the most trouble. Her opponent was intelligent. She couldn’t afford to underestimate him. She also couldn’t afford to get defensive. If she was too confrontational people would notice and they’d get suspicious too. It was a fine line she’d be defending, especially considering her overall lack of knowledge on Felix. [break][break] Finally at the end of the short line, she greeted the cashier - one of many people she’d long ago made a point to become friends with - and paid for her food. She took a step then hesitated to looked around and locate the pair of consultants before walking over and taking a seat across from them. ”I’m back,” she declared needlessly. She ate one of the fries then began speaking. ”So how much do you know about my… history with the Assembly? It’s not something I’ve tried to keep secret but I’ve been a part of the TRS for a long time now so I’m sure the gossip has died down somewhat.” It was hard to estimate how much any given person knew about her, no matter who they were. In the AP it was safe to say her name and image were known, but many in the TRS trusted her enough that she wasn’t an immediate suspect. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]Tessa hated how neutral Felix remained. She was a master at playing off emotions, but she couldn't do that successfully if she couldn't get a good read on his emotions in the first place. It wouldn't throw her off completely, of course. The TRS was a faction in a war, and many of the people she dealt with, especially the older ones, had developed thick skins. Guarded cynicism was as much of a starting place as anything else. It just meant she'd have to work a little harder to make sure she was subtle. If she tried too hard to twist his thoughts he was probably the type of person that would get suspicious. Truly innocent people may have a desire to clear their names but they'd be willing to settle for a discontent understanding. As long as that understanding was enough to make sure he didn't cause problems for her she'd be willing to settle. [break][break] As Felix began down the hall, Tessa followed a couple of steps behind, wanting to note how he and Bruce naturally interacted without it seeming too suspicious. She had interacted with the pair before so it wasn't like this was her first bit of insight on them, but every bit could help. "Fine by me. Would either of you like anything?" she offered. The moment away to grab food would be good. Clearly she couldn't rely solely on emotional plays to get what she wanted so reworking her plan a bit was a good idea. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]Tessa's gaze attempted to pick up any sign of recognition as the party's isolated observer turned his attention to her, but it was hard to tell behind the mask. There were many risks to her interacting with members of the AP, but perhaps the worst was the fact that a lot of them could recognize her at the drop of a hat but she only actually knew the faces of the select few she'd interacted with as a child, and even then her memory of that time was foggy. Her allegiance may have laid with them, but that offered her no protection from them. She was high on their list of people to kill and she could never truly fight back. Fortunately, distracting her way out of tricky situations happened to be her forte.
She kept her attention on him as he spoke, casually gauging the distance between them. She was far enough away that she felt could probably dodge any sudden attacks, but she knew that was merely a false sense of complacency. At a party like this she could never truly but as much distance between herself and every else as she preferred, especially considering an attack could come from anywhere. It wasn't just the suspect before her that was a potential threat. As it was, the costumed man didn't look overly fast, but with enhanced speed she knew that was yet another dangerous assumption to make.
There was no way in hell she'd let down her guard here, but being physically tense would be showing her hand. It was easier to be underestimated when people thought she wasn't actually paying attention. "Nope. No problem at all," she smiled, turning her back to the table and taking a sip of her punch. Her eyes scanned the party, looking for signs of illicit activity that she had no intention of actually reporting. "Call it idle curiosity. This sort of event is always so boring. I could be doing so many other things with my time." That was a lie, of course. There was no place she'd rather be than between the TRS and the AP where she could put all her skills to use. Where she could remember why it was so important to always keep up her act. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]Although she was not on duty for the holiday, Tessa had volunteered her time to help keep peace at the City Hall's Halloween dance. Although she had not been informed of any specific plans by her contacts in the AP, it was well known that they had a penchant for attacking on holidays, particular Halloween. After recent events, she could use the extra light of innocence that her accidental presence during an AP attack would shed on her. So she blended into the crowd as best as she could, despite the TRS uniform she was required to wear in the place of a costume.
Tessa did not understand why so many innocent civilians would choose to be at an event like this. All night she had observed costumed adults and children alike, very few of whom could probably actually defend themselves, smiling and laughing as though they had nothing to be afraid of. As a child, her mentors in the AP had taught her that many people were simply ignorant to the danger lurking among them. It made them easier targets and wasn't worth questioning. The TRS had offered a different perspective, that everyone needed to be able to let go of their worries every now and then, and holiday events like this were the designated time for it. She wasn't sure which explanation was more realistic, but neither truly justified taking such a risk.
As a scout, she wasn't stationed in any one particular place. Most of the actual security was left to the hunters, they were better suited to it anyway. She was merely expected to keep an eye out for suspicious activity. She didn't know why they expected her to find any when she was forced to announce her position to everyone in sight. Not that she would report anything she found unless it was obvious enough that she couldn't possibly claim she assumed it was benign. She knew the AP were better than that, or at the very least she had enough faith in them to fight her cause well when she herself could not.
Like a wraith, she slid through the crowd mostly unnoticed. Everyone seemed to be attached to someone else at this party, a stark contrast to her own life. It had been years since she had truly had anyone else. Other people were just a distraction, a weakness. They could hardly be of use to any particular cause if there was always something else they needed to take care of, and Tessa truly didn't understand what the point of a life in service to nothing could possibly be.
Many of the people who did stand alone were off to the sides, watching over the party in a similar fashion to the hunters on guard. If anyone else had picked up on it, they probably categorized these onlookers as those too shy to actually dance or explore the many activities the party had to offer. Perhaps that was all they were, but Tessa couldn't stop herself from hoping they were more. She didn't have a watch on her and her phone was buried deep in one of her pockets, but based on the words coming over her radio she knew it was starting to get late. If an attack was coming it would be soon.
Tessa came to a stop at one of the many drink tables, ladling some punch into a flimsy plastic cup. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept her attention on a hulking man in a costume from some stereotypical horror movie. "Did your date for the night leave you behind?" she asked wryly. "I cannot imagine anyone choosing to come to a party merely to stand on the sidelines all night." [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]Sometimes it surprised Tessa how predictable people were. For the most part she could determine what someone would say or do, not because she could follow their logic but because she knew better than to assume people based their decisions off of logic like she did. They went with their gut, and their guts could easily be manipulated. Felix, however, made it hard to anticipate his actions. His face was impossible to read, but he was upfront about his intelligence. It gave him away. If he played along a bit more she might have assumed he was like anyone else. As it was, she would have been surprised to find him an unworthy opponent in a duel of wits or perception. Regardless of whether or not she thought him to be a little rough around the edges, it was a pity he had chosen to align himself with the TRS. He would have made a good informant for the AP.
Her idle thoughts were cut off by a single comment. 'Even if the perpetrator was Bruce.' It was a lie, but he'd said it without a trace of doubt in his tone. Tessa glanced at Bruce, curious to see what his reaction to suck fickle loyalty would be. Regardless of what Felix thought, Tessa doubted he would actually turn in his body guard. She knew first hand how hard it could be to betray people, even if what they had done was wrong. If she was more honest with herself, that would define her relationship with the Assembly. She pushed the thought out of her mind. If she let herself get hung up on it she'd be distracted and she couldn't slip up.
As Felix went on, Tessa kept wide eyes fixed on him, analyzing his expression under the guise of what she hoped Bruce would see as a polite attentiveness. "Would people really raise complaints about that?" she asked, furrowing her brow. Since she was a child, she had always excelled in deceit and intel gathering, but that didn't mean she hadn't grown over the years. When she was 12 she might have cut him off eagerly to inform him that she had no complaints, but training under Octavio and learning the skills required to be a Scout from the TRS had taught her to let people say whatever they were going to say before adding any input. There was a firm connection between gathering information about someone and properly lying to them, so anything she could pick up on without prompting with suspicious questions could be considered vital information.
From Tessa's perspective, it seemed like he was a bit too insistent that Bruce had to be there as a body guard. Something deeper had to be going on, even if she didn't know what. Was there some threat putting him in more danger that she could see or did he rely on Bruce's different perspective on complicated situations far more than she had originally though? Regardless of the answer, she made a note to pay attention to any communication between the two, verbal or otherwise. It could be hard to tell if they had some sort of coded way of talking to each other without being extra cautious.
She had considered where she'd wanted to talk to him in anticipation of being asked. It was relatively benign on the surface, but what she chose actually held quite a bit of meaning. She had to choose somewhere that either put them on even ground or gave him the advantage. She didn't anticipate any trouble, but if she were analyzing someone's words she would make note of where the balance stood to determine the mentality they were approaching the upcoming interaction with. The safest thing was leaving the decision open for him to choose, but he had passed it back to her and she wasn't interested in wasting time playing hot potato with a such a small matter that he might not have even been paying attention to.
"Uh- Where to talk..." she muttered to make sure it didn't look like she'd put thought into this decision. If she was trying to prove she wasn't a lying, scheming spy the worst thing she could do would be to make it obvious that she had already played out the multiple different paths this conversation could take in her mind. Not it would do her much good. She was already getting the feeling she'd have to stay on her toes and play this as if it were an active battlefield, considering the road ahead as it twisted and turned. She suppressed the urge to grin. This was her favorite game and it had been a long time since she'd had a worthy opponent.
"I'm not really sure. Not here though." she said lightly and shook her head, "How about the cafeteria? I could actually use a bite to eat." As far as she was concerned it was the only real option. There were very few private locations within the TRS headquarters, and she wouldn't move their interaction to a secondary location by suggesting somewhere outside of the building. As a scout she had an office, but that would be her own turf which wasn't what she wanted either. The cafeteria wasn't an explicitly private location, but it was pretty far from any meal times and she had paid enough attention in the past to know that it would be relatively empty now. Plus it was large enough that the few people that would be there could be avoided, which made it much better than the hallway. [break]
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]Tessa's eye widened as she caught up to the inseparable duo and listened to Felix's calm explanation. She had been hoping for some sort of emotion. If he kept a level head it would emphasize any trace of anger she showed, painting her as unsteady or overly emotional herself. Or maybe it would just be the obvious act any spy would use to clear their name. Thankfully, she was not just any stupid spy. She had been playing this game for a long time and she knew exactly where the pitfalls were. She would have to come up with a new approach on the spot, but she'd always been a quick thinker anyway.
Her gaze darted towards Bruce for a moment before returning to Felix. Even if the bodyguard was a silent observer in most cases she'd have to convince both of them so playing on Felix's emotions would be a tricky approach. Innocence, naivety, and an undeniable support for the TRS would be the way to go, then. "Oh, no, I totally get it." she replied quickly. "And I don't want to throw any accusations at you. In fact, I'm glad you reported what you did. As members of the TRS it's important that everyone reports suspicious activity. Whether or not those suspicions are well-founded is beside the point when it comes to the safety of the organization." Plus, if everyone reported everything it would make her job a lot easier. She liked predictability, and there was nothing worse than when someone decided to keep some subtle clue she'd dropped to themselves. She was sure there were some people out there who were suspicious of her but had kept it to themselves so they could hold it over her later.
She returned her mind on the subject at hand. She had to transition from not caring that he'd reported her to defending her case. She'd made bigger jumps in the past. "That being said, the TRS is like a home to me and I care what the people in it think of me." Even a half truth like that felt wrong on her tongue. 'The TRS is like a home.' Her definition of the word 'home' had never involved anything as... safe as the TRS. She was far more at home amongst masters of deception and manipulation. "I know my hands look bloody but could you please give me a chance to, I don't know, clear my name in your book? You don't have to change your mind about me, but I'd really appreciate it if you at least give me a chance. Preferably somewhere more private?" she glanced around, very aware that while the halls may have been relatively empty at that moment, someone could pass by at the worst possible moment and pick up some suspicious bit of conversation. She didn't feel like clearing that up too. [break]
What could I say about my childhood? I cannot say that it was good, not can I say it was bad. When I forget my past I am happy with where I am now, but it was the past that brought me to the present so I cannot let it slip through my fingers entirely.
In my life I have had two families, one with the AP and one with the TRS. One that I must pledge my loyalty to and one I must betray. I made the decision without a second thought and I would never go back to the Assembly, but that doesn’t make it any easier to recall the people I once loved.
Since I was 16, the TRS is all I've had. They became my home even though I came to them as an enemy. I owe them my life, for if they hadn't accepted me no one would have. But before that, I belonged to the assembly. Their blood runs through my veins. Even my very name, Tessa Harmon, belongs to them. They no longer want anything to do with me, and I could easily do the same. I could change my name and wipe away any trace of their memory. But without their memory how could I possibly know what I am fighting for.
I remember the day I left. Things were good that morning. But they weren't good for the right reasons. My father was so proud of the soldier I was set to become. You see, in my family reputation was always important. My parents expected me to be better than anyone else, both because of my lineage and because my siblings had already set a nearly unmatchable example.
There was a party that night and my father made a toast and I realized it wasn't praise I was after. In fact, I wasn't after anything they could give me. I was sick of the expectations for a cause that had never really been clear to me. I was introduced to the world as a black and white place where personal concerns didn't matter, but it didn't take much looking to find that that couldn't be true.
So I picked a fight. A very public fight. And I wasn't accepted back. At 16, I was driven out for speaking my mind. That is the world I grew up in, and it is one I don't want to go back to, no matter how many positive memories I have from growing up.
[attr="class","adrie-lyric2"]I'll show you how the game is played
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]The AP's latest ambush on the TRS had come as a surprise. A surprise to everyone but one Tessa Harmon, of course. While it would have been too dangerous to follow up on the information she'd given the AP to ask about their plans, not to mention the fact that it was safer for her to be able to deny that sort of information anyway, it didn't take too much to guess what would go down. The TRS was going to ambush them and the most aggressive response was to get an attack in first. It hadn't done too much damage, a fact Tessa found herself oddly relieved about, but it had been enough to knock the air out of the TRS and delay any future attacks for a while.
Unfortunately, it took a niche bit of information for the AP to know when to lodge the attack, which left Tessa with something of a mess to clean up. She had known it could cause some issues before she'd even passed on the intel, and she had been making preparations to prove her innocence since the very moment Felix Mellobrook had given it to her.
Receiving information like that was always conflicting. Tessa had all but given up her entire life so that she could infiltrate the TRS and become a truly useful agent for the AP. She wanted to give everything she could, but she also understood that it was a balancing act to maintain her cover. There were plenty of people in the TRS that could vouch for her supposed hatred of the AP, but that would mean nothing if she did something truly incriminating.
When she had been called in to talk to some higher ups it hadn't been a surprise, but she acted like it was anyway. A few choice defenses and emotional manipulations had her off the hook pretty quickly, although she was willing to bet another slip up soon would command more scrutiny. That left her with one last person with suspicions to smooth over. No one had explicitly brought up Felix's name, but it was pretty obvious he'd been the one that brought her behaviour to light.
Tessa didn't know what to think of Felix. Although he was for all intents and purposes a blind man she knew there was more to it than that. He could navigate well enough and he had the tendency to see through ruses that others wouldn't be able to. It would have been fascinating to observe if it wasn't directed at her.
As she walked down the hall, she steadied her breathing. Appearances or other visual manipulations wouldn't do her any good, so she would have to make she was following through on her act to the very core. Whatever his enhanced senses were, she wouldn't allow herself to look like a fool by not monitoring her breath or making some other miniscule error like that. Continuing down the hall she loosened, and added a controlled shake to her breath.
She was walking at a faster, more distressed pace by the time she managed to actually find Felix. She hesitated very intentionally before speeding up more to catch up. "Mellobrook! We need to talk." she called, her voice carrying down the hall. [break]
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[attr="class","inner-finally"]It had been years since Tessa’s life was ‘normal’ in any capacity. For the most part she liked the way things were. Even as a child she had known her life would be shaped by whatever the Assembly demanded of her. They were her parents, her family, her friends. But, more importantly, they were her cause. Without her blind dedication, she wouldn’t have any meaning to her life. No matter how her definition of home changed, she would always have her support for the AP as a steady, shining force to hold onto.
At least, that’s what she repeated to herself as she laid in bed to the late hours of the night, unable to get any sleep. Rather, her spinning thoughts pulled her deeper and deeper. She had always hated self reflection because it usually came back to one word: traitor. Everyone she cared about would label her as such, and beneath all her excuses and reasoning a part of her would always know it was true. Even if her position in the TRS allowed her to gather valuable information, every moment she lied to her family she was deceiving them. Not to mention she was betraying almost every person she actually spent her time with.
Long ago Tessa had decided that the best way to get her mind away from spiralling thoughts was to go on a nice long run. So, when her best attempts to fall asleep failed she found herself at the track on the TRS training grounds in the middle of the night. Although some people were still on duty, it was blissfully quiet compared to the bustle of daylight hours. In the years since she’d joined the enemy organisation, she’d developed mixed feelings about its headquarters. As a part of her job, she found herself spending a lot of time in the facility and it had come to be something of a home. Lately her own apartment always felt more empty than anything else. She didn’t want to be there. Instead, lap by lap her feet carried her around the familiar track at a reasonable pace. She didn’t stop until she was thoroughly out of breath and convinced that pausing her running wouldn’t leave her mind open to errant thoughts.
With long red hair and violet eyes she's never really tried to disguise, Tessa is fairly identifiable. At 5'6" she has a relatively average height. She spends a lot of time outside so her light complexion is usually tanned from the sun. Beneath her soft exterior she has relatively lean muscles because of her time spent training. She usually wears relatively modest clothing, dressing for comfort rather than style.
Tessa prefers to play the long game over anything else. She likes planning out her moves and, when it comes to manipulating people, making subtle changes that build over time. Over time, she has also learned to think on her feet. When it comes down to it, she doesn't mind blurring lines to get her way.
She does not like directly lying, which can be difficult considering the nature of her job. She usually opts to tell adjusted versions of the truth when someone wants to know something that could get her in trouble. That being said, if she's really backed into a corner she won't think twice about lying her way out and won't feel guilty until after the event.
Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, Tessa does care about others. She usually tells herself that that part of her personality is just an act, but it's the reason she spends most of her time feeling guilty for manipulating most of the people she talks to.
abilities
Illusion Manipulation ~ Master Tessa is able to create and manipulate illusions. When she was young she used to use this ability to stop people from noticing her, but with age and training it has evolved into an altogether more useful tool. She can create fake objects that everyone can see, which is useful for making distractions, or, with more focus and use of her ability, she can affect how one specific person sees the world. The more people she's trying to effect, the more of her energy it takes up, but the same goes for more detailed and larger illusions. The more details she adds to an illusion the more concentration it takes, meaning when she goes more in depth into illusions she is vulnerable to attacks from whatever outside forces may be around.
Cat Shifting ~ Moderate Tessa can shift into a pink cat with dark purple stripes and horns. She typically avoids this ability, sticking to her human form unless she wants to slip out and be alone for a while. It takes her about 30 seconds to shift, during which she is vulnerable to attack, and if she's severely injured in cat form she returns to her human form.
Enhanced Speed ~ Beginner Tessa can move faster than any human. She likes to run but she usually practices going for stamina over speed, so she doesn't have much experience moving super fast for extended amounts of time. If she were to try she would get tired very quickly.
Decoy Creation ~ Advanced Tessa is capable of making a decoy of herself. It takes about 10 seconds to make one of these decoys and takes a good amount of energy to maintain them. She is able to manipulate them to do what she wants when she is in view of them, but she can also set them to do one action on repeat (like turning pages in a book to look like its reading). When she can't avoid AP altogether, she usually ends up using this ability to get away.
Tessa was born into a family of loyal and distinguished AP supporters. Her grandparents on both sides of her family had high positions before retiring and her parents followed closely in their footsteps. As such, her face was known around the AP while she was growing up.
Her parents weren't always the most present since they were so focused on their AP duties, so for most of her young childhood she was raised in the Dark Palace with permission from her uncle, Noah Sullivan.
She was relatively young when she started her training to join the AP, but she quickly proved a promising addition. She had always known how to stay quiet enough to slip through the cracks and ended up in all sorts of places places she really shouldn't have been, so her parents decided she'd be best suited in the information field. Her training enhanced her innate skills and soon enough she was able to blend herself into whatever setting she wanted.
By the time she was 15, she was as good as any other informant on the field. It was around this time that a higher up in the AP happened to watch one of her training missions and approached her about a far different job than she'd ever had in mind. He wanted her to go deep undercover as a TRS agent to gather information from the source. She would have to, for all intents and purposes, live as a member of the TRS. Even as young as she was, she knew what that meant. She would have to cut off her family and everyone else she'd ever known and convince the world she had become someone else. She was hesitant at first, but she had been raised to believe it was her place to serve the AP in whatever way was required of her, so she took the job.
After another year of more specific training that was kept secret from her family, she was ready. She picked a fight with her parents at a very public AP event, making it clear that she thought blindly following some god no one ever met was stupid. In response, her parents proclaimed they never wanted to see her again and kicked her out.
Making it out of a building filled with AP fighters after declaring that she didn't support their cause whatsoever was difficult, but she'd had her escape route planned and was able to sneak away without too many tails. She showed up at the TRS headquarters a few hours later with a terror close behind her and feigned helplessness. After a couple of hunters stepped in and took care of the monster, she begged for amenity, explaining with abridged honesty that she was from an AP family but didn't support their beliefs and had gotten in trouble when she decided to turn her back on them.
Naturally, it took a bit of work to build trust. She was adamant that she wanted to help the TRS, though, and soon enough she joined as a scout apprentice. At first she pretended she didn't know what she was doing, but she worked hard and improved.
Since then, she's made herself as essential to the TRS as possible and claimed to hate the AP more than anything, all while reporting back to Octavio Kremlin, the man who recruited her to begin with, with whatever information she came up with. Save for them, she has avoided contact with anyone in the AP. When she does come across them she is usually labeled as a traitor by whoever is able to identify her.
misc
Likes: AP, Her Job, Her Family, Dancing, Chocolate Cake, Puppies Dislikes: Attention, Being Wrong, Losing, Headaches, Manual Work, Cats Fears: Not having a purpose and failing
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The skin is created by Wolf of Adoxography and Gangnam Style. The thread and conversation remodels are by Kagney. The Strange Reality board list, Heal My Soul info center, I Remember Now mini profile and Electric Requiem profile remodel is made by Pharoah Leap. The Who's That Member member list remodel was made by Tictactoe. The Cbox.ws Shoutbox remodel was made by Trinity Blair. All templates used for claims, information sheets, applications, etc are credited to their owners; credits for these can be found in the threads the templates are use on. Images that are used on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners, however, they have been edited by Zac with a few being edited by Chibi Magician. The plot, rules and various other information pieces for The Duality of Man are written by Chibi Magician with the assistence of her co-admins, Finnegan and Dremulf, alongside other unlisted people who were kind enough to give their input. The TRS, AP and face claim were all created by Fleur for specifically the use of TDOM. All plugins used on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners. The templates my members use are credited to their maker, if you find a template that belongs to you, but is uncredited, please speak to Chibi Magician or the member themself. Characters created on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners and should not be used elsewhere without the creator's permission.
Special thanks for the members of TDOM who make suggestions to help make this site better. Even though we can not accept all suggestions, we immensely appreciate it. Thus, we give credit to any additions that you thought of and were later implimented by the staff, because we are glad you give us these excellent ideas.
