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Grace Amadeus Fugue
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2"
Meister Class: Utility
Family Bloodline: Fugue
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Appearance:
Despite her name, Grace doesn't seem "graceful" so much as loose, her clothing and posture relaxing and falling however they so choose to. This isn't to say that she looks messy--indeed, far from it--simply that it appears as if she puts minimal effort into her appearance while still receiving decent results. Though it's entirely possible that this could translate into "natural" grace as she grows older, at her current age (and with her current styles of slightly-grungy clothing) it's likely more fair to state that her appearance is a light manifestation of the "apathy-itis" that has taken over many a teenager's life.
Her soul is greyish-tan and looks slightly bored or passive. A small grace note hangs off of the top of it, connected by a small beam.
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Personality:
Much like her appearance, the theme of Grace's personality is "flowing." It's not her job to go against the tide, it's her job to maneuver within it with the skill and precision of a champion swimmer. Though it appears paradoxical to many, she's somehow managed to replace most forms of worrying with forms of focus, letting whatever happens to her happen while honing in on what she can actually do in any given situation to change it to her will. Life's an orchestra, so just focus on your part.
When her relaxed outward nature is coupled with this outlook and her natural drive, she seems less like someone who is plain lazy and more like someone who is "in the zone" one-hundred percent of the time. Whether or not she truly is, of course, remains to be seen.
Interpersonally, these internal processes shine through to create a relaxed, slightly distant, but nonetheless extremely tolerable person. She's the "quiet friend," the one with rare but quality insights that spends most of the hangout engaged in whatever they want to do while quietly listening, but will always engage when talked to; independent, but always willing to swing back your way as part of their orbit.
Oddly enough, Grace's easy-going nature makes it easy for her to resonate with many of her classmates. Ironically, this quirk of personality has all but glued her to Seren, as she's just about the only meister in the class capable of indefinitely handling her natural abrasion without long-term discouragement or frequent clashes. As Grace describes it, she herself is the "downtime" of a song, the measures when the entire band chills out and rolls with the beat. And Seren? She's the crazy licks and the guitar solos. Grace, the calm, chugging bass to Seren's screaming upper registers. The Santana to her Dragonforce. The first half of Free Bird versus the second half of Free Bird.
You get it.
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Biography:
The Fugue family, historically, is not a family of meisters. But it is a family of maestros.
It is a name of great wealth and long-running classical talent; a clan of conductors, first-chairs, famed soloists, and treasured composers. Ordered, principled, and cyclical, much like the looping, iterating genre of the same name.
It is also a name of dwindling prospects, for just as the word Fugue is tied to intertwining, ever-shifting melodies in unison, so too is it tied to a twisting, deep, labyrinthine madness.
Growing up, Grace's mother, Aria, watched the elder members of her family fade away one by one. Dementia, depression, Alzheimer's, and personality disorders of all stripes--as each lost their personhood, they were removed from the grand familial mansion, never to be seen again. By the time she was twenty, the beautiful cacophony of practicing family had become an eerie silence, broken solely by her own singing and the light pattering feet of her few attendants. Loneliness tugged at her heart and mind with reckless abandon, yet despite the encroaching darkness, she became an operatic jewel, touring throughout the world and performing for audiences from Alabama to New Zealand.
In Copenhagen, while slated for a performance as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Aria fell madly in love with the production's prodigious first flute, Nills Quarter. He proposed to her at the final performance, and the two were married at the end of the production's run; the production's closing celebration doubled as their engagement party.
Together, the two continued their performances and escapades throughout the world, finally settling after Grace's birth. Their little "grace note," as she was called, became the object of much doting and devotion, especially when it became clear that she happily shared her family's musical aspirations. Aria's mind eased as the joy of music returned to her household, delighting in father-daughter duets, composing trios for the family, and Grace's frequent practice sessions upon the organ in the manor's main hall.
Yet, this stability did not last very long, as Nills soon fell gravely ill; though she still had her daughter, for Aria, the loss of her life's love was too much to bear. She felt the onset of the familial "curse" early on, isolating herself as far from her daughter as she could until she no longer had the mind to do so. Mind nearly gone, she eventually turned on her offspring, forcing long and brutal instruction on her. Grace played for longer and longer hours, and was often woken by her mother in the middle of the night when the silence became unbearable.
The young Grace began to resent her mother and the music that she played, though more than anything else, she resented the madness that took her loving, "true" mother from her. In private, she began straying away from desired classicality, delving deeply into countercultures and blaring, angry, modern music. At nights, she began leaving the house, biking into town at the dead of night to look in through club windows and watch rock concerts from illegally-scaled rooftops and far-away hills. She fell in with a rowdy, youthful crowd of her own, always disregarding her mother's screams and maddened pleading every time she was caught; even punishment did not dissuade her, and in time the manor's few remaining servants became sympathetic enough to begin aiding in her romps themselves.
Slowly, she realized that she was able to "feel" people, and her mother's demeanor became stifling and torturous, as if her madness were now crawling within Grace's own mind and forcing her to retreat further into herself. In time, this, along with freedom, managed to mellow her, the initial burst of emotion brought about by her mother's change now mixing with her more reserved nature. Having grown confident in her independence--even despite her young age--she eventually left, ultimately deciding that anyplace was better than life with her mother. Having noticed that there was more to madness than meets the eye, she grew particularly wary of that sensitive kernel of lost control within many people. If her mother and her family history were any indication, her own days were numbered unless she found help.
Thankfully, an institution known as the Death Weapon Meister Academy might just have the answers she needs. Maybe, she thought, if she learned enough, if she worked hard enough, if she did everything she needed to do, she'd find a way to not only keep herself sane, but bring back the mother she wishes she can see again.
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Partner: Seren Gogo (
The One Eyed Bandit
)Abilities:
-- Soul Perception: Just the basics, nothing to see here.
-- Wavelength Control: Viewing adjusting her wavelength as being not too dissimilar from tuning an instrument, Grace has taken to this particular technique rather quickly.-- Master Musician: Though it's not relevant to the majority of her EAT schooling, Grace's early life has gifted her with a musical foundation that's difficult for others of her age to match. Though rock and classical are her mainstays, she can easily deal with just about any genre, and plays whatever she fancies. Her training in this area does lead to useful analogies for mastering wavelength-related studies, however, something bolstered by her surprisingly flexible soul.
Fighting Style: Flexible. Smarter, not harder. Observe, then execute. Use what you've got, don't force what you don't have. Unlike some, Grace prefers to follow her weapon's lead when it comes to figuring out how to engage. Polearm? No problem, use their reach. Scythe? Now there's a classic; speed, wide arcs, keep it simple, keep it deadly. Fighting from range? Make them work to get to you. With Seren in her hands, Grace prefers a more aggressive playstyle, using her partner's destructive potential to its fullest at a variety of ranges, thanks to her chain and momentum potential. It might take Grace a little longer than some to get going, but those balls-and-chain start rolling, there aren't many things that can get them to stop.
Strengths:
-- Wave Rider: Perhaps strangely, Grace's musical training has allowed her to create rather useful mental comparisons between soul wavelengths and sound. As a result of both this and her even demeanor, she tends to resonate easily and pick up new meister skills with surprising quickness--so long as she practices.
-- Sonic Sensitive: Despite seemingly blasting her ears into nothingness whenever she has her headphones on, Grace is quite good at picking out individual sounds in the midst of battle.
-- Conductor: What's the use of playing with others if you can't figure out how all your parts should fit together? When put into unexpected situations with unexpected people, Grace has managed to put together surprisingly quick strategies. They aren't always optimal, and they aren't always easy to execute, but Grace can turn a cacophony into a symphony with a few minor changes.
Weaknesses:
-- Improv: In line with Grace's attitude regarding how best to make one's way through life, if Grace feels like she has some better idea for the survival of herself and her weapon, or the completion of the mission, chances are she'll just go for it. If she doesn't need to tell you about it, she probably won't even let you know.
-- The Sound of Silence: Want to begin chipping away at her sanity? Just ensure she can't hear anything.
-- Runs in the Family: Speaking of sanity, there's no telling just how much of it Grace has. Were she a normal girl, she'd likely live out her life just fine for years, but when immersed in the world from which your family's curse stems? Well...
Equipment: Grace carries a harmonica around in her pocket to cope with boredom. It also counters the slight discomfort caused by silence, which reminds her of her mother--and her mother's madness.
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Supporting Characters
-- Aria Fugue: A famous opera singer, and Grace's formerly loving mother. Having fallen prey to her family's long-standing instability, it would be a stretch to call Aria even a shadow of her former self. Grace, now believing that there is perhaps more to her family's mental history than mere chance, hopes to use her knowledge gained at DWMA to bring her mother back from the brink.
-- Seren Gogo: Grace's hot-headed, pushy, slightly-paranoid partner. Seeing as resonating with Seren is a one-way ticket to Hurt City for many meisters, Grace has taken up the task, with a mutual respect for each other's personal drive doing the brunt of the work in regards to resonance capability. Grace doesn't know enough about her partner to nail down why she acts the way that she does, but is content to believe that it comes from a place of wanting everyone to reach their fullest potential. Whether she knows it or not, Seren's goading has been a major source of improvement fuel for Grace herself.
-- Father Michaelis: Grace's contact for her sunday organ job, and one of the only people that she feels comfortable divulging more personal details to. That said, she doesn't vent all that often.
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Extra
-- Grace keeps two guitars (electric and acoustic), a bass guitar, a violin, a cello, and a Kazzio synthesizer in her room. She's currently saving up money to buy a Grammond Rock Organ, believing it to be a mandatory component of any serious rock musician's toolkit. Her longer-term collecting dream? Own an authentic, original-run Bender Stratoblaster electric guitar. And not just as a show piece, oh no no no.
-- She sometimes moonlights at Deathstaurant as one of their live music offerings for a side-job, and also pulls in a pretty hefty stack of cash for playing a church organ on Sundays.
-- Despite her musical inclinations, Grace's most prized possession is not an instrument, but a motorized bicycle that she and her old street friends modified to look slightly more like a "real" motorcycle. To her, it's a symbol of her cultivated freedom.
-- Grace can't relax or fall asleep without either music or white noise playing, due to the anxiety that silence causes her. She's also something of a poor test-taker for this same reason, unless there's an air conditioner running somewhere, or enough page rustling and pencil-scratching for her to hone in on.
-- Since arriving at DWMA, Grace has been trying to put together a band she's preemptively called "the Resonators." Word is she hasn't actually recruited anyone yet.
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