The skeleton emerges from the wall’s brickwork like a peach pit from a pursed mouth.
Her name in life no longer matters. Upon the tile floor she clatters.
And then she stands up.
The skeleton is named Flip. She decided this at the moment before her birth.
Several severed heads line the ground in a ring around Flip, still warm like mushrooms after a storm. Reddish-black ichor dribbles from their necks and into spiderweb channels. She’s the product at the center of a vast ritual.
And yet she is so, so small.
Her body is pale-parchment beige — a mundane group of remains, save for the fact it’s capable of movement without any muscle. A faint weave of mana supports her limbs and ties them together like a puppet to a string. When Flip walks, a large four-sided die in her ribcage rattles freely.
No explanation is forthcoming. Nary a cultist appears to beguile her with honeyed words.
There is only the quiet march of blood.
Flip stands there listlessly for a short moment before being bombarded by the information flowing through her mana weave.
PROPERTIES CAPABILITY
o----------------------o o------------------------------------------o
|Level: 1| | P)BONE TO PICK/FREE [Source: Skeleton] |
|Kingdom: Skeleton| | Receive 1 Manual Point per level. |
|Phylum: Gambler| | Spend Manual Points to increase Revives, |
|Mind: (Reach level 3)| | Strength, Speed, or Skin by 1 forever. |
|Body: (Reach level 6)| | A)ROLL/3ENG [Source: Gambler] |
|Soul: (Reach level 9)| | Deal damage to another body equal to one |
o----------------------o | of MAX REV, STR, SPD, or SKN. The choice |
EQUALITIES | is random. If this kills a target with a |
o----------------------o | new Phylum, gain 1 Manual Point. |
|Corpse = 9 of 9 | | |
|Revives = 2 of 4 | | |
|Onus = 0 of 10 | | |
|Strength = 1 rad 1 | | |
|Speed = 1 exe 3 | | |
|Energy = 10 of 10 | | |
|Skin = 1 of 1 | | |
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o----------------------o o------------------------------------------o
POSSESSIONS
o---------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Head: |
| Torso: |
| Innards: “RIBEYE” L1 Unique Die (+2 Physical Damage to ROLL) |
| Arms: |
| Legs: |
| Left Hand: |
| Right Hand: |
o---------------------------------------------------------------------o
The spray of information is at once overwhelming, bludgeoning her into a curled ball on the ground.
Ever so slowly, the blast dims in her mind. Only when she's uncurled and sitting up does Flip attempt to untangle it.
Her Properties are a list of what she is, overall. Flip is certain to be a skeleton, and by extension she knows she is a level 1 being. Phylum is less clear. She takes a moment to pore over her memories.
She holds exactly one from before now. It's the reason she named herself Flip.
Flip remembers her meaty finger kicking a coin into the air, and it slapping onto the opposite arm. Tails. A shattered laugh. She leapt from the overpass and plummeted to the concrete.
Yep, she must be a gambler. Who else would leave life and death to chance? Flip picks up one of the numerous heads from the ritual lines, holding it to drip in front of her. In the absence of a drink to pour out, she supposes blood will function!
Equipped "Head" to Left Hand.
Gained (+1 to Skin)
Flip tilts her head curiously. It seems attempting to use an object for a task was enough to equip it, just like having a die rolling around in her ribcage had added it to her Possessions automatically. She's not sure why it gave her Equalities, but on that note, she has a vague sense of what the Equalities do. It's bundled into Flip's mysterious weave with the rest of her information.
Corpse is the remaining durability of her bones. It's high in comparison to an average, non-animated skeleton, which would have a Corpse of 1. Flip knows that if given time, she can recover from injuries to her corpse, but it'll be a long rest for an impatient skeleton with a world to explore. Adjacently, Skin refers to the surface portion of her body that can be regenerated quickly; a break of 5 or so minutes would be enough.
Revives, on the other hand, are the number of times her weave can reconstitute her from nothing. If Flip dies without any, she'll stay dead.
She takes a moment to let that sink into her.
Not only have I probably died once, I've also got 2 more lives to spend on a suitable cause! Or even a silly one!
Strength is her power to hurt, as well as the radius in skulls she can affect with one strike. Speed contains the amount of times she could feasibly attack in a second, as well as the exertion it would require to do so.
The weave whispers that the dead are near-tireless, provided they conserve their strength. Thus, Onus fills with her exertion, and depletes by half-max each second. Only when full does she feel exhaustion... but it happens all at once. Flip notes that if her Speed reached 4, she'd tire in an instant of full movement.
Energy, finally, is a resource that recovers like skin and can be spent on Capability. She prods at the mana insistently until it releases an explanation for what that means.
Capability is the sum greater than the parts.
That's pretty... barebones!
Flip realizes to her horror that she can't snap her fingers very well as a skeleton.
How am I supposed to punctuate my puns?
She stomps her feet in anger, sending the four-sided die in her chest into a frenzy. She stops. That's right, there's one more thing to examine.
With a reluctant hand, she reaches into her ribcage and pulls RIBEYE free.
Unequipped "RIBEYE" from Innards.
Lost (+2 Physical Damage to ROLL)