Ledger

*"I assure you, these illusory abilities are worth studying. I can make you look like another person, turn your coffee into a cup of bland tea, or otherwise make it look like a spider is on your toilet paper. I wouldn't suggest taking my abilities lightly."*

*"Oh, but of course! That's why the writing seems flat... I'm using the wrong pen!"*

**Ledger Quill** is a half human, half penguin hybrid sourced from the same online game as Lumi, but having more human attributes than his more avian counterpart; instead of swimming like a torpedo underwater for fish or collecting rocks on the beach, he dabbles in philosophy in the comfort of his office whilst tending to his extensive pen collection (of which Kodachi tries to borrow from under his nose).

## Backstory

There's no information on Ledger's origin before his membership as part of the Cabinet. There is no information on his relatives, friends, or any sort of public record that was formed before his time as a writer. As said by Ledger himself, it seemed as though he gained consciousness with a vague sense of needing to accomplish a mission or that he felt compelled to write and only write. Judging from his backstory, it seems as if he started as an NPC before developing his sentience.

## Personality

Ledger's got a haughty streak, and he's quite perfectionistic and can be self centered at times about his writing. He dabbles in the philosophical and likes to be humored when he goes on about his mental findings; some people have a genuine interest in his findings, leading him to be humored for hours as he talks about his writing. He loves pens just about as much as coffee, which doesn't say a lot because of his caffeine addiction, which stumps the EC as he doesn't drink a lot even when he fronts in the external world.

Underneath this exterior is a man in need of the feeling of safety. He gained sentience and practically grew up in an environment that meant that anyone unhappy with his writing could have meant punishment or worse. This has led him to grow up learning to speak flowery and eloquent, and make an attempt to charm others to endear him to them. He used to have an inflated ego about himself and his writing, that might have come from a place of self loathing, as he had to grow up in an environment where he was only good for being philosophical and getting good report cards in high school for the team.

When feeling safe, he puts his illusory abilities to good use as pranks even if they cross a few lines, but it's a generally good sign to mean that he's comfortable. Much like the British voice actor/ video game narrator his voice is sourced from, Ledger has fallen in love with the idea of one day having a big project that will take the world by storm. Ledger also has a tendency to enter a hyper focus when writing, and tends to get furious when someone distracts him or otherwise takes his pen when he's busy.

Since joining the EC, Ledger has been the go-to guy for general advice, and as a plus, his strong connection to his intuition has led to him developing his clairvoyant abilities that come from a protective place when it comes to his friends. The best phrase to use when describing Ledger is an eloquent, flowery goofball with a brain full of ideas, the ability to use them well, and a heart of gold.

## Relationships

### Kendra

*"For my Queen, I have remained loyal ever since I took my first breath that faithful day in Her court. My loyalty remains undying until the end, and if Her Grace wishes to end our world and take us all down with it, who am I to stop her? Who are you, Etheridge Fools, to stop her?"*

Ledger was extremely loyal to Kendra. He put his heart into philosophy, and even honed his own school of thought that she fell in love with. He appealed to a sense of forgotten love towards reading that she once had in her childhood years (although Talia being sealed away inside her heart may have also played a role at the time). This writer's loyalty extended to a desire to kill for her honor, to which she repeatedly forbade vehemently, as she expressed that if he was dead, she would not be able to read any more of his writings. She also commended him for being the "only sane man" aside from her of the Cabinet, and repeatedly spoke that his good works was why he had stayed alive for so long. Ledger adored Her Majesty, and sought to make her happy in a few other ways, whether it be lavish gifts or all the attention she could ever want.

Kendra's death hit him hard, so hard in fact that he went into hiding for about a year until Kodachi pressed him to come back, still remembering the potential that he had as a friend despite his villainous streak during the rebellion.

### Kodachi Tsurugi

*"She steals my pens and makes such a ruckus! How could She love someone like that?!" - March 2018*

*"You couldn't take me down with all of your power. How are you going to take down our glorious liege, much less her entire army? Just go home and spend the end times with your family." - Ledger, after a duel with Kodachi that he won.*

*"Was it not enough to kill Her Majesty and disrupt the natural order you cretin?! Have you no sense of logic?! We weren't supposed to exist, and here you are capitalizing on this whole system business like it's something that's easy peasy, when nothing like this was supposed to happen! It's bad enough that you replaced Her, but you're not even attempting to keep a normal, natural singlet gig - you're inviting people like myself left and right from the past to join you now. When the Etheridge Collective falls apart, you'll know WHY." - Ledger, responding to Kodachi's formal invitation.*

*"It still feels weird being part of a large collective that keeps growing and growing, but at least it's nice to have a place to stay. There's so many people I haven't met yet, and frankly I think I'm fine with it. Even the act of fronting doesn't appeal to me much anymore. The "therapists" of the group calls it self loathing. I call it not wanting to be a part of this whole thing, but room and board is free, and Kodachi gives me a ton of freedom that I can't imagine having anywhere else. If you want my opinion, if you asked someone who wasn't me, it's that she's a good leader and friend. If you ask me, I couldn't care less."*

Ledger's relationship with Kodachi is as complex as it is turbulent. While he's not exactly on unfriendly terms with her these days, he's detached from the Etheridge Collective as a whole and spends time by himself, to the point where even he's aware that he doesn't interact with everyone on a consistent basis. While he doesn't mind giving advice to other members, pulling pranks on people, popping into a room to say hello every once in a while, he's a night owl that spends time alone in his study and rarely takes control in the alternate world, as in his words, "it's not for him." That being said, he doesn't have a lot of one on one time with Kodachi. His view of her isn't hostile, resentful, or otherwise unfriendly as much as his detachment comes from a lack of self identity cultivated by years of giving himself to someone else. Without Her Majesty to give himself to, he's lost.

### Chokuto Tsurugi

*"Wouldn’t it all be better if we just let it all go? We’d be so much happier - She would be so much, much[..]Why do you fight it?! We’re all going to die here! It won’t be long until The Algorithm picks up something wrong with all of us and tries to fix it, damn it! It’s all useless![...]That car sister of yours won’t do much of anything. She’s going to be killed up there and join the rest of us in the cessation of existence!" - Ledger, before being punched by Chokuto after losing to a duel to him.*

*"You work so hard taking care of your family. I wonder what that must be like."*

Ledger's relationship with Chokuto is cordial, but complex and somewhat turbulent. On one hand, he and Chokuto share quite a history as they were both part of the Cabinet, up until getting stabbed by his namesake sword in the heat of battle. On the other hand, Chokuto is supportive of Ledger's writings, and loves to read them, even offering to join him as an assistant. While the two of them have had their fun together over the last two years, the two of them haven't had a real heart to heart after the end of the rebellion. During their time as Cabinet members, he kept to himself, but was annoyed by his and his sisters' rambunctiousness.

### Makibishi Tsurugi

*"You're an odd duck, I'll give you that. You're always so cheery all the time without a care in the world. How do you do it?"*

Ledger, despite having been on the opposing side during the rebellion, never fought with Makibishi in any form during that period of conflict. It's not that he didn't acknowledge her as a true fighter, but rather, he adored her to an extent, and still does. He finds her intrusions into his office, whether when she was still in the Cabinet or if it's present times to be welcoming. This is probably because she won him over with all those sweets she made him over the years, plus his code of honor is strict, citing that he'd never hurt a lady for any reason. This has led to many conflicts during the rebellion where he simply gave up if she was present.

In present times, he and Makibishi have a respectful relationship which has taken a few trips on the intimate side. Aside from that, they're as close as friends as Ledger is comfortable with.

### Arashi Tsurugi

"She has a lot of potential to be who she wants to be with all the time in the world. I'll support her no matter what she sets her heart on."

Ledger keeps an eye on Arashi to make sure she's safe. He answers her many questions about writing and has taught her how to write using Synaptum's intrinsic memory. He keeps snacks in his office for her, and makes sure she is well educated in writing. He has also shown her old philosophical writings to help inspire her as a writer, as he secretly hopes for an apprentice. When he found out Arashi was Chokuto's progeny, Arashi found his coffee spit-take to be humorous.

## Abilities and Combat

*"The pen is mightier than the sword... most of the time. All I need is a sword made of paper combined with my ink prowess. What do you make of that, Etheridge Fools?"*

* **Book Immersion** - His signature ability is to traverse books to learn more about them, only instead of mentally putting oneself in a story, he does it more literally to gather as many details as possible. Being untrained at it, he's limited presently by not being able to change plotlines past the halfway point, could die permanently if killed in a story, and risks losing his identity if he's in there long enough.
* **Enhanced Forgery** - One of his more underhanded talents is to mimic others' handwriting when studied long enough. This could be done for innocuous reasons like being covert in the external world, to undermining others in the Cabinet he was a part of to get ahead in a competitive environment.
* **Literary Imprisonment** - Tried this on Kodachi more than once when trying to get her out of his hair when he worked, but her creative disposition made it so that she ended up escaping sooner than anticipated, if even at all. He once tried entrapping her in an empty sketchbook in the hopes of driving her mad, but when he opened it up upon her escape, she had conjured a multitude of drawings (even a few that mocked him).
* **Melanokinetic Combat** - Ledger makes sure that he's well stocked on ink and quills not for writing, but also for combat. During his battle with Chokuto during the rebellion, his ink combat skills were surprisingly effective against Chokuto's fire based abilities. Although he could draw, he preferred to animate his existing sources of ink, as he couldn't and still cannot create any of his own at his skill level.
* **Paper combat** - A skill he inadvertently learned from Kodachi's creative abilities (despite lacking paper manipulation as a skill herself), he wields his paper manipulation in such a way that his weaponry is comprised of paper-mâché, such as swords or other weapons that he can mimic from his opponents from existing sources of paper; cannot manipulate parchment or papyrus nor create paper out of thin air. All other types are fair game at his current skill level.
* **Penguin physiology** - Having been sourced from the same game as Lumi, he has the body of a penguin; however, he's considered half human because he has more human attributes mentally and physically speaking (Although Lumi has the same kind of human sapience, they're in touch with their penguin side in comparison to their philosophical counterpart).
* **Philosophy Embodiment** - Ledger worked as a part-time philosophy writer for an online blog, and during his time there, has gained a sort of wisdom. Nobody can pin exactly what his theme of philosophy he specializes in is, but his works show examples of utilitarianism and objectivism based philosophies.
* **Writing Implement Manipulation** - Ledger can use writing quills as weaponry and other techniques such as lockpicking. He can manipulate the size of a writing quill to turn it into a formidable sword and turn the tide of battle, even if he doesn't have any ink on his person. Ledger is unable to create quills from thin air, can only manipulate quills, and his choice of utensil tends to be fragile at his current skill level.

## Trivia

* His paper-mâché abilities would be nigh useless against Makibishi's water based powers and Chokuto's fire based powers if not for his ink manipulation.
* He's a great collaborator when it comes to writing, but isn't too good with sharing works that he's already started alone.
* He's surprisingly great with kids.. when they're calm and he's not working.
* Ledger is admittedly salty over not having caffeine based combat abilities due to his addiction to coffee. It does, however, sharpen his focus and makes him feel more adult than the rest of the collective. In his mind, at least.
* His voice-claim is Kevan Brighting.
* Ledger Quill used to be known by the collective name of Chris, like Zeph, Lumi, and Phoenix (the latter was considered Christine, while Zeph used to be known as Sapphire, however). Ledger's name was suggested by Chokuto.