Quillion and Epee

[Quillion]

PLAYER INFO
Name/Alias: Canto

CHARACTER INFO
Name: Quillion
Age: Thirties-equivalent
Gender: Mech
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot

Original Occupation:  Athlete, Fencing Instructor

Occupation/Specialization: Combat Instructor, Duelist, Swashbuckler, and Rabble-rouser.

Appearance: Quillion is a long-limbed, lanky mech, as tall as Breakdown but half as wide, composed of angular but restrained and streamlined copper armor plating over sleek cobalt blue metal. Orange optics match the orange biolights running down his chest, back, legs and arms. His face is blue, and the copper-colored helm framing his face shares the swept-back angular but streamlined look of the rest of his plating.

    Quillion has an asymmetrical look, with his right arm and right leg being more heavily armored, and a pauldron on his right shoulder protecting the right side of his neck. In combat he favors his right side and stands to narrow his profile so that this heavier armor protects the areas an enemy might strike in melee.

    His movements are very smooth and fluid, and he carries himself not unlike a dancer with one measured movement flowing into the next. He is very often grinning, and always fights with his left forearm held against his back.  His rapier, Coda, is sheathed on his back.

Altmode: A metallic copper ‘61 Chrysler 300g with a blue interior.

Pertinent History:
Quillion and his partner Cassette, Epee, were constructed together in the Golden Age to compete in Tarn’s State Games. Quillion proved to be a talented athlete and gifted fighter; but by the start of the Caste Era, Quillion found himself locked into a role of teaching High-Caste Tarnians the ways of the sword between the annual Games. As time went on, this amounted to tutoring bored dilettantes with little interest in the martial arts and more interest in showing off to their friends and emulating the latest illicit gladiatorial matches they snuck out to watch. These people didn’t care about the rules of dueling etiquette, the history of the various blade forms, or even how to properly salute.

    His own dissatisfaction with his ordained role aside, he could at least look forward to the annual State Games to put his skills to the test. But with a growing unease, he noted that the unrest of the Caste Era began to make the Games and the crowd watching them more and more bloodthirsty -- they wanted the savage deathmatches of the gladiator pits, not tests of martial skill and athleticism.

    He wasn’t oblivious to the change in Cybertronian society, either; the Caste System caused very many hardships, and there were very many legitimate complaints and grievances. Quillion believed in fairness and equality, and the Caste System traded both for a sense of stability that would never last.

    Still, the war came. Quillion was neutral in the conflict until Tarn raised the Decepticon flag and Quillion began to get a sense of where things were going -- the sinking feeling he had gotten from those increasingly bloodthirsty Games matches hadn’t stopped sinking. His own athletic career had all but crashed and burned -- he wasn’t bloodthirsty, or savage enough for the restless crowd. He left the arena behind and made his way to the Autobot cause -- not because he was interested in restoring the status quo, but because it became clear that the change the Decepticons sought was to tear down the Caste System and replace it with a new form of tyranny.

    As part of the Autobots, Quillion served as an able combatant and as a combat instructor. As the war drafted more and more Autobots with no combat training, it fell on instructors like Quillion to get new Autobot warriors who were only recently office drones ready to fight. Epee followed her carrier faithfully, typically contributing to these efforts by laying around and staring at him, though occasionally he could badger her into taking on some scouting duties

    As a fighter, Quillion was best in single combats, and would often seek out Decepticons who would be likely to accept a dueling challenge before challenging them, often in front of their troops. This was, of course, idiotic and an unviable long-term strategy for a solitairy Autobot fighter and his robot cat, so Quillion found help: a unit of other Autobot misfits (as if there are other kinds of Autobot units).

    During the diaspora preceding the Exodus, Quillion and Epee joined up with a small band of Autobot misfits who had taken an old Cybertronian exploratory ship from the Golden Age. These Autobots called themselves the Lost Cause out of a grim sense of humor, and traveled to worlds that the Decepticons had settled on, and worked to free them from Decepticon control. They targeted worlds that the Decepticons had taken over from native populaces and worked to subvert those tyrannies alongside the natives, surviving thanks to the gratitude of newly freed civilizations. Quillion found himself in the role of teacher again -- teaching untrained natives how to fight and how to overthrow their oppressors.

    At some point, the rest of the Lost Cause, and their ship, were lost in a set of circumstances that Quillion doesn’t really talk about -- the end result is that he and Epee are the last survivors of the Lost Cause.

After this, Quillion and Epee drifted a bit on their own, traveling and helping people where he could, bartering his skills for travel and survival before receiving Prime’s signal and arranging for transport to the now destroyed neutral base on Earth.

Personality:
Quillion is an exuberant spark with a flair for the dramatic and an adventurous spirit. He has a tendency to dive headfirst into any given endeavor he undertakes, giving 200 percent at all times to everything he invests himself in.

    Quillion is *exhausting*.

    He is passionate, romantic, honest, loyal, and abides by a strict code of personal honor. His exuberance can lead people to think he is foolish, even naive, but he is in fact quite canny and clever, with a mind for strategy and tactics honed by millions of years of duels.

    He loves fighting, but the focus for him is on the fight itself, not the violence or power he can hold over others. He likes to match wits and skills with others of wit and skill; causing damage and death is something he views as sadly necessary at times, but it’s not something he relishes. He’s as good a loser as he is a winner, viewing each victory as a gift and each loss as an opportunity to improve.

    Quillion is always supportive of his friends, acquaintances, and, very often, total strangers. There is a part of him that never stopped being a combat instructor, and he likes to share his knowledge and instruct others, if they’re willing. He is generally extremely well-mannered and unflinchingly polite, treating friends and enemies alike with courtesy until they wrong him.

    He is excellent at holding grudges. Quillion has a vengeful streak parsecs long, and doesn’t forget a slight, nor does he find it easy to forgive outside of the context of a duel. Duels solve everything.

    Primus save you if you threaten his cat.

Likes:
Sword fights, sword fights on moonlit beaches, sword fights on crashing dirigibles, sword fights through scenic gardens, sword fights through factories with lots of conveyor belts. ADVENTURE. Honesty. Honor. Humor. Teaching.

Dislikes:
Treachery, tyranny, savagery. The teacher that still lives within him dislikes seeing wasted potential. Slights against his friends and his honor. Betrayal. People who threaten his cat.

Strengths/Weapons:
Coda - Quillion’s sword, a perfectly balanced and preternaturally sharp rapier. Its durabyllium blade generates a kinetic field that protects and strengthens the blade, keeping it sharp and strong enough to pierce medium Cybertronian combat armor and allowing it to deflect ranged attacks. This is limited by Quillion’s own skill and hand-optic coordination -- the field is not large, only slightly wider than Coda’s blade, and relies on his ability to parry, but it does give him an active defense against ranged attacks that he’s aware of.

    The size of the field makes it relatively ineffective against ‘larger’ projectile attacks, and it’s useless against explosions or explosive attacks. With luck, a keen eye, and the proper stance and form, he can occasionally angle deflections back at his attackers.

Danger Danger! High Voltage! - Quillion is a carrier with an unusual bond with his partner cassette -- when Epee is docked, he gains access to a potent mod called a Voltaic Engine. This mod allows him to access several special effects that channel the stored electrical energy in useful ways.

    With the Voltaic Engine overcharging the swords’ kinetic field, Coda becomes charged with stored electrical energy. This disables the benefits of the kinetic field; Quillion can no longer deflect ranged attacks and Coda becomes more vulnerable to damage, but he gains new benefits depending on how much energy he channels into the sword.

• At a lower intensity, Coda becomes able to discharge an electrical burst that can stun a target with a precision strike. The effect of the stun depends on the individual, with larger and/or hardier individuals needing several strikes. This doesn’t necessarily knock them unconscious either -- weaker targets might black out for some time, but stronger/tougher targets will simply be disoriented shortly. The electrical energy can also disrupt force fields. 
  
  
• At high-intensity, Quillion draws more energy from Epee and Coda’s blade becomes a lot more dangerous, with the intensity of the electricity being able to cut through substances that the uncharged blade cannot. He can only run Coda at this intensity for short periods of time before the blade starts getting damaged. Generally, he can cut through doors and basic metal walls, but armored bulkheads and fortified structures are a bit beyond him. Typically Quillion uses this to cut through doors and barriers, but if he’s fighting a significantly armored threat, judicious application of this setting can melt through small sections of armor, with heavier and denser armor taking longer and requiring more direct hits.

• Finally, Quillion can charge his own frame with the Engine’s energies directly. This allows him to conduct electrical energy directly through touch. This is equivalent to Coda’s low-intensity mode, and he typically uses this to augment his hand to hand combat abilities when he’s disarmed. He can’t keep this up for long as his systems weren’t made for this; it’s an inefficient channeling and it drains Epee much quicker channeling through Coda, and if he maintains it for too long he’ll overload his systems and stun himself.
  

Lightning Rod - Quillion was constructed to channel electrical energy. As a result, he has some resistance against electrical attacks meant to stun or incapacitate, with such attacks needing much higher intensity to bring Quillion down, as if he were a Cybertronian several times more armored and resilient. This protection is enhanced when Epee is docked -- she is able to absorb the excess energy in his system, keeping it from disrupting or damaging Quillion’s systems. Only the strongest EM projections or electrical attacks can phase him when Epee is docked.

I Run On Spite: Quillion’s bond with Epee provides a great deal of energy for him. While he still requires energon to function, he doesn’t use as much since he can supplement it with the energy that Epee gathers and stores.


Rake - Quillion is a master duelist and fencer, an expert in melee combat. He is quick and precise, and his fighting style relies on precision stabs and parries. His armor configuration supports his fighting style, by putting heavy armor plating on his right side, the side usually facing his opponent. The lack of other armor allows him a range of movement and flexibility that aids his agility and reach with his weapons.

What Is Fencing, But Chess With More Stabbing?: Quillion has an encyclopedic knowledge of combat maneuvers, forms, stances, and other melee combat minutia. This allows him to analyze the fighting style of a melee opponent, which can sometimes give him a necessary edge in combat.

It’s to be Fisticuffs, Then?: Even unarmed, Quillion is still a formidable melee combatant, utilizing his long limbs and speed to great effect -- his unarmed fighting style focusing on takedowns, sweeps, counters, and quick strikes rather than trying to overpower an opponent.

Weaknesses:
Fight Smarter Not Harder: Quillion, while not weak, is not built for physical strength or durability. He’s a finesse fighter, and as such, he’s built for reach and agility over brute strength and tankiness. With the exception of some pieces of heavy plating situated to defend mostly against a melee opponent, for the most part he has medium-to-light armor and must rely on dexterity and deflection to avoid harm.

Swords at Fifty Paces: Quillion has *no* ranged capabilities to speak of, and has to rely on his mobility and reach.

Dirty Pool, Old Man: Quillion abides by a personal code of honor and behavior. He can be honest to a fault, and not only dislikes lying, he is actively bad at it. He has an overdeveloped sense of fair play -- and while he favors being cunning and clever in combat, he refuses to use tactics he would call underhanded, cowardly, or treacherous.

You’re On the List: Beneath his polite, exuberant and friendly exterior, Quillion is a very vengeful ‘bot. He does not forget a slight or a betrayal, and can be single-minded in his pursuit of vengeance and ‘satisfaction’. His ability to hold a grudge can be legendary at times -- there are Decepticons who wronged him eons ago that he still considers mortal enemies. Even if he were to find out that in the million years since they last crossed paths that that enemy had opened a very successful franchise of kitten orphanages, he would still show up in the middle of their Annual Adorable Kitten Pancake Breakfast, call them to task for their litany of sins, and challenge them to a duel to even the score. Right in front of the kittens.

I Eat When I Miss My Cat:  While Quillion's bond with Epee and the Voltaic Engine grant him an enhanced energy efficiency, when separated from his cassette for an extended period his energon efficiency becomes worse and worse, to the point where he must consume more than an average Autobot of his size until he's given a chance to dock.  

Special Skills:
Swordsmith: Quillion has become a skilled blacksmith over the millennia. He was forced to learn originally when he made the transition from athlete to Autobot and was forced to repair Coda for the first time. Over the course of the war he has become well-skilled in repairing, maintaining and creating melee weapons if given enough materials, time, and a forge. He put these skills to use in arming rebellions, often making basic weapons for native populations that he would then train for combat. Despite his skill at the forge, his specialty is in forging weapons -- armor is not something he really knows how to make, nor is he comfortable repairing it, preferring to leave that sort of thing to a medic.



CHARACTER INFO
Name: Epee
Species: Photovoltaic Cat Cassette
Purpose: Power Source; Battery Bank; Dueling Second; Reluctant Scout Sometimes; Menace

Appearance: Epee is a small, cybernetic feline with a copper-and-blue color scheme to match her carrier. She is roughly housecat-sized in comparison to Quillion, being somewhere between Jack and Miko-sized at the shoulder as far as her height goes. She is sleek and segmented with some armor plating down her back and tail -- this is the armor that merges with Quillion’s while she’s docked. Her optics are luminous blue, as are her biolights. Her biolights glow brighter and become more intricate the more energy she has stored -- She uses this as a form of warning coloration when she's not in the mood for pettings.

Altmode: Epee folds up and docks with the armor on Quillion’s right shoulder, with her armor plating joining with the pauldron her tail armor forming the armor collar that protects Quillion’s neck and throat and most of her mass docking in a space within Quillion’s chest. Epee’s joining with Quillion is seamless -- they were constructed together to dock. In Quillion’s alt-mode she’s completely contained within the car’s shell, though sometimes she likes to sleep in the back seat.

Pertinent History: Epee was created alongside Quillion as a crowd-friendly power source for the athlete’s Voltaic Engine, as well as providing protection against against the electrical attacks of the standard stun weapons employed in the State Games arena. It worked, with the hologenic fencer-and-cat combo becoming fan favorites during the State Games. She has stuck by her carrier through thick and thin, providing valuable insight by staring at him intensely and serving to temper his more exuberant and destructive impulses.

Personality: Epee is a cat. Dignified and temperamental, destructive and disruptive, occasionally affectionate, usually adorable but way too aware that she’s adorable. She’s extremely loyal to Quillion, judging it as her solemn duty to balance out her excitable carrier. She usually does this by staring at him. Epee is a type-two cassette, possessing a higher-than-normal animal intelligence but not sapience, with a strong bond with her carrier.

Likes: Basking. Pouncing on smaller things. Sometimes larger things. Attention.

Dislikes: Working. Being disturbed. Attention.

Strengths/Weapons:
Do Not Touch the Kitty: Epee is essentially a power generator and battery -- she absorbs electromagnetic energy, usually the ambient energy generated by stars and sunlight, and converts it into energy ready to be weaponized. She can discharge this energy on contact with her metal skin, stunning all but the largest or strongest targets that try to grab her for a few moments. She typically does this when someone tries to touch her and she disagrees.

Aren’t All Cats Perpetual Motion Machines?: Given Epee’s nature as a battery and power converter, she doesn’t actually need energon to function, with her own photovoltaic and absorptive abilities providing all the power she needs. That is not to say that she does not like being offered energon.

Yes Your Little Dog May Hold The Pistols: Besides her claws and teeth, which can do some damage to unarmored Cybertronian skin, Epee is equipped with a spark projector on the end of her tail. She can use this to launch stun bolts short range with moderate accuracy. These bolts can stun targets depending on their armor and constitution, with larger and hardier targets being relatively unphased by the bolts.

Epee can also use the spark projector as a plasma cutter, allowing her to open passages through metal walls and bulkheads that are otherwise closed to her. Like Quillion, she can't cut through heavily armored barriers. Both functions draw from her stored energy, so overuse means she needs more time to recharge.

Epee is extremely agile and quick, owing to the feline she was built upon.  She is very good at remaining unseen when she wishes to be.

I've Come to Sleep Directly On Your Head:  While undocked, Epee always has a sense for where Quillion is in relation to her. When separated for too long, she’ll usually start sauntering in his direction. While she doesn’t have maps of any given area, she usually tries moving in the straightest possible path, cutting through walls that stand in her way.

Weaknesses:
There Is No Such Thing As a Harmless Cat: Epee is not really built for combat at all, having been constructed to be docked with Quillion during combat situations. Her electrical abilities are all short range and more oriented toward those times she needs to defend herself while undocked. Her armor is minimal and is mostly for Quillion’s benefit for those times she docks with him.  Her bite and claws, while painful, are usually too small to do anything more than superficial damage.

That Darn Cat: Epee is a cat, and though she is nominally an Autobot by association, she doesn’t listen to anyone but Quillion. She is insubordinate and a bit of a disruptive menace at times, given her temperament and capriciousness. When separated from Quillion, she can be downright destructive in her attempts to rejoin him.

I Don't Need You:  If Epee doesn’t dock with Quillion every few days at least, her power banks might become overcharged, especially on a world as close to its sun as Earth. Power cells damaged by this overcharge lose some of their capacity and must be repaired, usually by a knowledgeable medic or engineer.