AegisBloom

**AegisBloom**, or **Aegis** for short, is a character in *Magical Girl Policy*. She appears throughout the "Party" series of MGP Vignettes as a player in Todd Walker's *Keeps and Kobolds* role playing campaign. She is a student at Schuyler Adamson University and a member of its nerd club SFEERS. "AegisBloom" is her online handle, and her real name has not been stated.

## Appearance

AegisBloom is a young woman said to be cute, but not particularly so. Focus is given to her hopeful eyes. Her voice is soft and high-pitched, likened to a squeak.

## Personality

AegisBloom is extremely shy, even when compared to SFEERS's broadly introverted demographic. She is modest and lacks the confidence to assert her feelings, having to build up the courage to do so. Even among friends, she is normally hesitant to speak up, especially in public places. She is very polite and neat, liking to clean up after herself and pack her belongings in an orderly manner.

AegisBloom is a member of the nerd club SFEERS, mainly sticking to its tabletop gaming sector. She plays the RPG *Keeps and Kobolds*, though at first she engages extremely little in the game, suggesting she preferred some other game, though she becomes gradually more invested and proactive. Her character is a mind-mender, a healer with psychic powers. It is suggested that Aegis's role-playing as a character more confident than herself has helped her manage her shyness.

## Biography

### Background

Two years ago, AegisBloom voted for Fretribution to become president of SFEERS.

One year ago, AegisBloom and fellow SFEERS members BugReport, Hambone, and Travesty begin playing a new *Keeps and Kobolds* campaign created and led by Todd. Besides Hambone, however, the players are not very engaged. Aegis is noted to speak so little that Todd wonders if she's getting any enjoyment from the game and isn't playing it for anything other than to pass the time. The session just prior to "After Party", which was supposed to be a dramatic one that would push the story forward, went particularly poorly. One of Fretribution's suggestions to Todd is to incentivize players to roleplay during battle, and if the others become more invested in their characters then AegisBloom is likely to follow suit and join in discussions. Todd follows the advice, and the players get more motivated with each session.

Two months later in "Party Hard", Travesty's character Rook learns that his new axe is cursed and fills him with some of its souls each time he invokes its strength-enhancing ability, which has a mysterious spiritual effect on the golem. Todd is surprised to hear AegisBloom speak up, as she notes that her mind-mender character might sense what's happening to Rook via her psionic powers. Todd tells her that Rook is the only character who can hear the souls' voices, but she may be able to notice something about Rook's condition later on while healing his mind. Todd plans for said healing to be a scene spotlighting AegisBloom, who would have to consider what she knows about Rook's situation and what her character would divulge to the party.

Eventually, the group moves their *Keeps and Kobolds* sessions from the library to Todd's dorm, and AegisBloom begins to more often take initiative in the game, as she is apparently more comfortable in a private setting. After two months of playing, the party realizes what Rook's axe-arm is doing to him and want to remove it so the curse can be lifted, but he refuses to part with the souls now residing in him and prepares to attack his friends. Aegis takes charge, sharing with the others the mechanics of this kind of soul-filled item. Hambone suggests detaching Rook's axe-arm during the fight, a task which Aegis nominates the lockpicking skill of BugReport's thief.

"Housewarming Party" cuts past the conflict with Rook, but the group found tonight's game session extremely enjoyable. Like usual, BugReport, Hambone, and Travesty leave Todd's dorm while AegisBloom remains a little while longer to help clean the table. When Aegis is about to go, she stops herself and asks Todd out on a movie date. Todd wonders if her passive behavior during their early game sessions was because she was primarily there to spend time with him since she was too shy to ask him out. With the pair planning seeing the newest *Dustfall* movie tomorrow, Aegis leaves. Fretribution then enters the living room, having overheard the conversation and feeling vindicated that his suspicion that Aegis liked Todd was correct. Todd considers that perhaps her role-playing in the game helped her overcome her severe shyness enough to finally act on her feelings.

## Relationships

### Todd Walker

AegisBloom, along with BugReport, Hambone, and Travesty, plays in a *Keeps and Kobolds* campaign created and led by Todd. It is suggested that she joined less out of any enthusiasm for the game and more out of a desire to spend time with Todd, as she had fallen for him at some point but was too shy to say how she felt. After she is encouraged to roleplay as her confident character more and the campaign sessions are moved to the privacy of Todd's dorm, Aegis becomes more comfortable asserting herself to her friends. This culminates in her finally asking Todd out on a date. Todd is taken aback by this development, and Aegis is similarly shocked to see him agree to go.

### Fretribution

AegisBloom voted for Fretribution prior to his first term as president of SFEERS. Despite Fretribution trying his best to get to know every SFEERS member, he does not meet Aegis until over a year after they've been in the club together, implied to be due to her overbearing shyness. They are implied to have become better acquainted ever since Todd moved the *Keep and Kobold* meets to his dorm, as he and Fretribution are roommates. Fretribution is able to deduce that Aegis has feelings for Todd, though he doesn't tell Todd until after she reveals them herself in case his suspicions were wrong.

### SFEERS

AegisBloom has been a member of the nerd club SFEERS for at least two years, having voted for Fretribution prior to his first year as club president. She is active in the club's tabletop gaming group, and plays Todd's *Keeps and Kobolds* campaign with BugReport, Hambone, and Travesty. She is the least talkative of the group and her early sessions had her mostly silent, but she sometimes proactively takes charge to bypass what would've been an argument over how to proceed, though she considers Hambone to be better at planning than herself. While the others tend to leave Todd to clean up after a game, Aegis makes a habit of staying behind to help him.