The Cherry Imp

## History

Chu Ye, a shogunate in the distant continent of Tian Xia. One ruled by the native shapeshifting outsiders, known for their wickedness and cruelty. Operating mostly from the shadows, the entire shogunate is under their control and everyone else within it are naught but slaves or agents of their nefarious will. The oni believe that all of mortal kind isn’t appreciating the pleasures of life enough and so they seek to punish all those undeserving or rule them as masters.

Since they are bound by Laws of Golden Perfection, a set of divine rules all kami adhere to, they can not meddle directly and so often employ non-oni agents. Sometimes however, these agents are put to other kind of uses and one of such resulted in the strange tiefling that was neither of impish devil-blood nor of the master’s oni blood but something in between.

A freak of nature, even more so among the freaks of nature tieflings already are. Little attention was paid to the shortstack that would be known affectionately as Yīngtáo (Cherry) or derisively by others as Xiáoguǐ which could mean anything from imp to brat. That little attention became a whole lot more when she proved a genius level aptitude to learning anything she picked up. They had found a new future agent.

She was subsequently educated properly and often with the risk of punishment for failure to reach excellence or better. This shaped her to be a quite meticulous person but also one insatiable for the many aspects of life; including good food, drink and pleasure. After all, if you served the masters properly you were rewarded equally.

Among these skills were the use of guns as unbeknownst to her, she would one day be sent to infiltrate the great city of Absalom. She wouldn’t be the first to be sent there and neither the last, but her aptitude as a spy and infiltrator was deemed appropriate. Additionally, her very soul was imprinted with a mark that would make her more susceptible to divination magic and so it was a lot easier to scry on her no matter where she’d be in the world.

Alchemy was another valuable skill that would allow her to craft many beneficial or otherwise useful things to aid in her mission in Absalom. The last one imparted was that of charm, what good infiltrator didn’t know how to talk their way into someone’s good graces after all? When she reached 22 of age, she was finally set on a course towards the center of the world and it would take her a whole year to arrive. At which point she had taken on the nickname of The Cherry Imp in a small token display of pride of how she had overcome the challenges of her life so far.

Her mission was simple; establish yourself within the city. Gain a good and trustworthy reputation and await further orders from the contacts already present. When it was time, she would be told what to do next.

## Goals

* Establish herself within Absalom
* Await the Masters further orders
* Open her own alchemy shop and research new ammunition types
* Make real friends, the luxury she could never afford back home

## Appearance

The Cherry Imp is a charming little short-stack at 4’0” with curvy figure and much like her name suggest; a beautifully cherry skin tone. Her striped horns that merge out of her forehead betray the mix of oni and possibly imp blood. Her face has a beauty mark under her left eye and plenty of freckles. Her pupils are amber in their core and glowing, surrounded by a crimson ring.

Pointy ears and a slender, youthful face mixed with a mischievous quirk of her small lips truly lives up to the Imp portion of her nickname. Her pear-shaped body sports thick thighs and hips, a slender waist and a generous bosom at least for her size. An energetic spaded tail tends to swish about behind her with a tendency to poke or prod at things, betraying its prehensile nature as it sometimes even grabs them

## Notable equipment

* A **small revolver** she calls Yì, as per the Tian Xia philosophy of righteousness and justice. The revolver now features a railgun upgrade and is enchanted to the first tier. It also has a white ankh of Isis on the handle to remind of her assistance to Jaci, conferring a divine bonus to her attacks and accuracy.
* A second **small revolver** she calls Rén, as per the Tian Xia philosophy of benevolence and humanness. The revolver now features a railgun upgrade and is enchanted to the first tier. It also has a white ankh of Isis on the handle to remind of her assistance to Jaci, conferring a divine bonus to her attacks and accuracy.
* A **small kukri** she keeps as a backup or close quarters weapon, reportedly as an emergency tool to cut herself out of the belly of the too many things that could swallow her whole.
* A Chu Ye style **fox mask** she only wears when out doing shady things or adventuring, one she hopes to enchant to hide her presence better at some point.

## Personality

Charming most of the time and playful at others, there are moments where her mischievous nature really comes to the surface as things might go missing or somebody else’s possessions end up in your pocket. Despite of this, she tends to go for harmless pranks and will admit if caught in the act.

She tries to be a pleasant person to be around and is not shy to chat with anyone that would approach her. There are times where her oni blood may shine as well that results in lighter sadism and bullying of others, but that tends to only happen with those who ask for it or deserve it.

All in all, she tries to live without pretense with the exception of keeping her secret mission just that; a secret. The loneliness she feels from her years of training and lack of childhood tends to manifest on overt friendliness and quite the sugar-tooth.

## Story in Absalom

* **20th of Sarenith, Oathday.** Having arrived at last, she quickly set to making herself some gold and then spent most of it on basic equipment and the famous advanced firearms that can be bought here. She named her new revolver Yi as per the philosophy of Justice and Righteousness.
* **21st of Sarenith, Fireday**. Cherry meets **Lenah Tordon** and the two become friends. Sharing an inn-room after they failed to get separate ones. Cherry encouraged the warrior to take as good care of herself as she does her weapons, agreeing to instruct her on the proper ways of doing this.
* **22nd of Sarenith, Starday.** Visiting the library, she meets **Jaci** who offers her to take down a few animated books in exchange for a reward and help with finding the right books on politics that Cherry sought. Learning about Beldrin's Bluff that was raised by a wild magic surge from the bottom of the sea after someone destroyed an artifact. Cherry also met **Avalian**, whom she spoke with at length as they both skipped stones at the docks. One using the tail and the other; magic.
* **23rd of Sarenith, Sunday.** Taking on a contract from the Arcanamirium, she set out to find the missing professor Blackbook. Only it turned out that he wasn't missing but hiding, never mind plotting the end of Absalom with the help of some [Redacted] pertaining to conjuration and [Redacted] magic. After successfully reporting back, she was officially signed on as the investigator under [Redacted] and contractually obliged to secrecy. She also picked up a sidekick; a cute and short elf by the name of Aegis Scylla who would assist her in getting to the bottom of Blackbook's plans. During this, she had also saved some kind of abomination that she brought to the Academy. A student under Blackbook by the name of [Redacted]. This is also the day Cherry hired contractors to build her alchemy shop with living quarters in East Gate.
* **24th of Sarenith, Moonday.** Meeting up with Scylla as planned, they were both surprised when Mrs. Velcroft was missing from her office. Instead they met the pale and raven-haired man of a very sleep-deprived physique that introduced simply as Balthasar. Scylla had expressed an unwillingness to accept his offer for help due to his reputation of being 'weird with a capital W'. Despite of this, they had nothing better to do and so they traveled to his classroom where some kind of slime explosion had occurred. It turned out these were acidic and some even alive, set on devouring anything in sight. After a short battle with a few close calls Cherry and Scylla stood victorious and Balthasar expressed his surprise with said victory, rewarding them and slyly grinning as he admitted to assessing them. Cherry had a feeling this wasn't the last they'd see of the strange man. -- This was followed by a trip to a local and cozy bar in the Merchant's district where Cherry and Scylla professed as to their feelings for each other. Agreeing on taking things slow and that they were officially a pair. Smitten and happy, they spoke of their potential future together and parted their ways all the more joyous for things to come.
* **25th of Sarenith, Toilday.** Cherry was whisked away with magic to help Jaci with a trail, culminating in that the elf became the Avatar of Isis, Herald to her will and the keeper of the new temple of Isis that resides within Absalom. As the Imp had been seen at the ceremony and adorned in appropriate clothes, her association was forever cemented especially after she introduced to the ruler of Osirion. Cherry visits Robin Magic and Technology later in the day to pay for a revolver upgrade. One to make her firearm magical but also make it gunpowderless. The Imp had no idea what this would imply but trusted the craftsman to do good work.

* **26th of Sarenith, Wealday.** The Imp picks up her now new Railrevolver, trying it out in the shop and finding herself quite impressed at this new firearm of hers. During the evening, she proceeded to tinker with it in hopes of better understanding the technology when a mishap sent her 25 ft. away from where she stood in the blink of an eye. Too close to the wall. With more caution, she experimented on and discovered a new magical ability that allowed her to do this at will -- with the caveat that she had to be holding something that conducted electricity. A small price to pay for near-instant teleportation.
* **29th of Sarenith, Starday.** Cherry Bombs - Alchemy & Munitions officially opens. Cherry makes use of her established customer base to run this new business and Scylla Aegis, her trusty mage assistant and now girlfriend moves in with her.
* **30th of Sarenith, Sunday.** Cherry gets her second revolver the same upgrade as the first. Later that day it was finally time to investigate the House together with Scylla. Arriving there they found Balthasar suspiciously sitting outside and waiting for something, giving it little mind they ventured inside only to find that the amount of [Redacted] was even higher than before. They were attacked by even stronger [Redacted] but managed to defeat those before finding a [Redacted] and venturing down. Having realized they entered [Redacted] Absalom, they also found Blackbook and through immense skill managed to retrieve the [Redacted] but had to retreat as things got very dire. It turned out that Balthasar was working for Blackbook all along and both are now confirmed and wanted fugitives. What's worse, it turns out that Shakir-- the student Cherry had previously saved has also gone missing and considering that Blackbook has control over the [Redacted] it was a victorious step forward and a small defeat all at once.

## Relations

* Avalian - the magical stone-skipper. Meeting on the docks, the two got talking and came to be on friendly terms. Cherry thinks that he's bold and eager, which isn't a bad thing, though he could perhaps work on his sense of timing a little.
* Balthasar - the pale weirdo. Cherry can appreciate his concise and pointed manner of speaking, though she is now rather irked at the man who threw her into a combat situation without much explanation and seemingly just to sate his curiosity as to Scylla's and hers combat ability. She has promised herself to be far more wary of the man in the future.
* Jacia - the tanned elf librarian. On Cherry's quest to learn more about the city and its politics, she decided to visit the library to peruse its books. There she met the short elf librarian that offered her a simple job of taking down a few animated books. Being successful, Jacia paid her well and Cherry promised to stop by again soon again with sweets. Cherry thinks that the gravity-defying elf is pretty cute and puzzled over how she can be so short. The Imp was in for quite a shock when she was teleported to assist her with the trials that turned the elf into the Avatar of Isis-- and rewarded. She feels quite baffled at having made such a powerful friend and a bit curious of how someone so powerful can be so modest and bashful. Whichever way, it is a friend she is glad to have.
* Lenah Tordon - the dragon-adopted tiefling who lives in East Gate. Cherry met her at the docks and the two made fast friends, sharing little bits about their past and Lenah giving some rather nice head pats. Cherry thinks that Lenah is a rather nice and calm person who is pleasant to be around, even if she is almost four times her own age. She was also impressed with the blood crystal pick that she won in the Bronze Minotaur Cup, nevermind the *claim* Lenah is somehow able to swim despite of wearing steel armor!
* Mr. and Mrs. **Velcroft**. It was thanks to Mr. Velcroft that Cherry got a quick audience with the bossy and professional halfling that would become her employer. She finds their dynamic amusing with how laid back Gerard is and how straight-laced and composed the Mrs. is. Cherry did catch her off-guard at least once so far and that's a good start.
* Scylla Aegis - the mage sidekick. Formerly a secretary in training at the Arcanamirium, she is now Cherry's assistant. Cherry thinks she is an innocent and brave little elf that deserves affection and protection, both things the Imp is more than willing to give. Feeling a bit smitten, Cherry still tries to be on the cautious side and not get ahead of herself with this cute and helpful elf. Since, Scylla has proven herself a competent combatant and Cherry's respect only grows as they face more and more dangers together. Only a few days passed before the two professed their feelings for one another as affections had grown even stronger. The two are now dating after agreeing to take it slow.

*This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.*