Special Skills:

Levitation: Well, they all do this, don't they? Levitation might seem pointless when you have wings to fly with, but in this case, it is actually quite the opposite. Beth shuns flying at most costs (unless, say, her targets turns into an Angel and flutters away), so levitation comes in as a nice freebie way to look imposing and taller-than-thou without the clumsiness of her flying. ^^; Basically, when levitating Beth is unable to move. It works like this: Beth stands on ground. Beth is lifted up (to a max height of 5 meters). Beth stands there until she is lifted down. She cannot walk around in midair or walk straight out from a building without falling, though she can possibly slow down a fall. Still, if they push, the wings are needed. Crap.

Camouflage artist: It is truly amazing what this woman can do with plain make-up. Probably, she should consider a career in special effects? (but then again, who needs special effects when you have real demons and angels running around?) Okay, enough with the praise, what can this actually do? Basically, this goes instead of shapeshifting. Though Beth is now a full demon, the human blood in her and the simple fact that she had no real reason to have it, left her with almost no shapeshifting ability, save for the basic 'take the wings away'. Instead, she took pride in a very human way of changing shape: Modern Cosmetics. Now, this is not to say that Beth can do everything with her make-up. After all, they are only mundane tools, though with a little spark of happy fluffy demon magic. She cannot change her gender, height, or the basic shapes of her body (no six-armed little boys), but inside these boundaries, much is possible. Hair colors, eyes and basic aging are easily done – theoretically, she can look from about 12 to ancient, but her pride gets in the way here: there is NO WAY to get her looking about 50. The end. Still, it is quite a handy skill to have around, even though it can't be utilized on the spot (a basic camouflage treatment can take up to five hours) and it is the main reason she's managed to keep her job. ^^

Dance, Beth, dance: Dance. Yay dance. This is not good for anything, but is is still a skill, and I am proud to announce that Beth holds the place in Guinness Book of Records as the dancer who pushed down most stuff in one program – and still finished it. ^^ Uhm, probably it could be useful at an LoCD's night out or similar?

Frustration: Uhm, yes, frustration as a skill. Allow me to explain. The woman who now calls herself by the name of Beth-avin is not among the luckiest on this planet. Sure, as some would say, she is lucky to simply be alive, but still, she is by no means a child of luck. So, when all these little annoyances that happens over a day (Getting from home too late, hairdryer malfunction, cornflakes being sold out, angels saving your victim and kicking your butt, yadda, yadda.) are summed up, frustration builds up. When the frustration gets too much, chaos ensures. All right, not really chaos (that's Orfiel's job), but still, She Is Not Nice To Be Near when she gets too much. Beth's abilities doesn't technically grow stronger when she's frustrated, but because she is so determined on, well, killing you, they raise in effectiveness by around 10% - i.e. She is more likely to hit. And then she will bonk harder. Fearsome...

Item-bonking: Sure, with all these items, the least you can expect is a good Bonk, right? When really frustrated, Beth will most likely start to throw her stuff at Angels, but in most cases she will simply swing the Purse of D00m like Mad Old Granny. And with all that stuff in it, that is bound to hurt. Not to mention that most of her tools will break if used this way.

Item-based abilities: Explained down in 'Weapons'. This is just a reminder to look there for the continuation of Nifty Things Beth Can Do. ^^

Henshin Item: Alas, no. Though henshin items are sparkly and nice, the Do Not Belong on this team, and Beth will instead give life to her frustration through the utter scoffing of it.

Transformation: Same as above, except henshin is, if possible, even shinier than henshin item. Bah. Scoff, scoff, scoff!!!

Colors: Bubble gum pink, gold and whiteish violet. And sparklies. LOTS of sparklies. Ah, I just found out that Violet is actually the color associated with vanity. Too bad Pink is the main one, but we are allowed to be slightly original, ne? ^^

Symbol: Scoff! Sadly we scoff on yet another nifty item of cheesiness.

Costume: Oh YES. COSTUME! The ability to summon an übernatural dress out of nowhere is, according to Beth, one of the very best things about evil. That and the cookies. Yay cookies.

Compared to that of other evil-doers, Beth-avin's costume is pretty simple and very modern. It has a fifties-slash-eighties feel to it and, well, she is slightly seductively dressed. Don't take away my cookies. On a side note, Beth is known to change her outfits several times each century to keep up with what's in fashion – this particular outfit has been in use since nineteen-eighty-something, during her former 'life'. She can revert to formerly used costumes if absolutely necessary, but it is highly unlikely. What, you want her to wear something that has been out of fashion for centuries?!? I think not.

Anyway. The basis of Beth-avin's everyday LoCD regalia is a tight evening dress, made from some smooth, glittery and VERY PINK fabric. The dress is backless, very conveniently allowing her wings to sprout directly from her naked back, and with very minimal strings as an excuse for sleeves. The dress would be sitting very tight around her legs, had it not been for the very long Slit of Increased Mobility that cuts the dress open in the right side all the way from feet to hips. Thanks to the magic of the Magical Girl Costumes and Hairstyles Department, her dress still falls close to her skin, avoiding the embarrassment of strong winds. ^^ About 1' from her feet, the dress grows wider and ends a little below her feet with a nice chance of trip-overs.

There is more to a lady than the dress, though, even if the lady is an evil one, so now we will play with the accessories. Her shoes are very high-heeled sandals with criss-crossing, about 1 cm wide golden bands wrapped around her legs, all the way to her knees, and while she has nothing in the way of gloves, her wrists are adorned with a variety of golden, sparkly armbands. Mysterious forces keeps a long, silky lavender shawl glued to her arms even in situations where it would be completely acceptable to drop it. Her jewelry varies a lot, but you can count that she is at least wearing some form of armbands and earrings, and necklaces plus rings are common too. And except for jewels and other details, they are always in gold. Don't expect to see silver on this lady. Finally, she is always wearing her beauty purse over her shoulder – or she is in great trouble... (see Weapon section)

And before I forget... the physical changes! Compared to some dark lords, Beth-avin changes very little from human to Dark Lord, probably due to the fact that she is not naturally a demon, leave alone supernatural. Of course, one of the little changes is that she now sprout WINGS, but at least there are no horns... ^^ The wings themselves are bony, gargoyle-like flying equipment, looking rather like skeleton wings just barely covered in leathery, lavender-grey skin. They are rather short, reaching only barely to her knees, but strong in contrast to their bony look. Like bat wings, they are five-fingered with the thumb reduced to a small claw at the wing-top and each additional finger ended with a tiny claw. Her style of flying is strangely inelegant; due to the size of her wings, Beth needs to flap them at an unholy frequency to stay in the air, thus generating a strange fluttering movement that is far from impressive. I think it goes without saying that Beth shuns flying. ^^; Other than growing wings, the only other change from human to Lady form is that her nails grow an extra inch long and very, very sharp. It is wonder how she keeps her own dress intact. Lucky for the angels, these pseudo-claws are rather fragile, and she is very concerned about keeping them intact. Rather break a leg than flick a nail. ^^

Angel Bait Monsters: Beth-avin's Monsters-of-the-day are called Narcissas (or Narcissuses, happens they to be male), obviously named after Narcissus, the Greek myth-boy everyone knows. Or ought to know. Hell, all right, I'll tell the story. But it will be fast. Narcissus – boy – Greece – reflection – love – obsessed – starved – dead – flower. You satisfied? (For those who truly has no clue what that was about, the myth is told at a slower pace here: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/narcissus.html)

Beth's Narcissuses, though not Greek, came to life in similar way. Rather than manifested monsters, they are the twisted remains of her previous victims, all of which had their souls stolen a long time ago, and now are completely under her control. To 'twist' somebody into a Narcissa, Beth needs first of all to weaken them to the point of immobility, using the Narcissus Reflection. After that, removing their soul is a piece of cake, but to 'convert', there is still work to do – after losing their soul, her victim falls unconscious and is usually sucked into the Mirror of Absolute D00m, which can carry only one person – additional victims need to be carried. x_X The next thing for Beth to do is to take her soul-derived victim to the HQ (all right, that is just her flat) and install them in one of her gazillion mirrors. The time they need to spend there depends on both age, level of goodiness and strength of will, but it usually takes somewhere between two hours and a whole month before the former human can emerge as a full-fledged Narcissa. The reason why she can't just control victims immediately after taking their soul lies in the way she attacks. Narcissus Reflection is an attack that focuses all the victim's energy on themselves, getting them completely separated from the real world – essentially, all their focus is on their soul, so when it is taken, what is left of the person is suddenly absorbed in nothing and collapses from the impossibility of it all. By placing that poor person in a mirror, she can slowly bend its focus from the soul that isn't there to herself, thus earning a loyal minion. Isn't it clever? The only way to 'free' a Narcissa is to reunite it with it's solidified soul but sadly for those looking to do a good deed, it is not necessarily a heroic act. As humans-turned-demon, the Narcissas do not age, so what looks like a twenty-year-old could easily be older than Methuselah, meaning that when returning it to human, it is also returned to it's natural life stage: dead. This won't happen with newly generated Narcissas, though.

So, what are these things anyway? In terms of looks, your average Narcissa or Narcissus is a beautiful, usually young, boy or girl with long, silky hair and a well-shaped body. In their true form, however, they are well-shaped, beautiful boys and girls made of glass. Their bodies are like mirrors, and their faces are completely flat and feature-less. It is a mystery how the see. ^^ The hair is, as said before, soft, long and silky, and the only part of them not made of glass. Now, being made of glass doesn't actually mean they are fragile; this is their battle form. The glass, you see, is highly reflective, and bounces back any light or beam-style attack sent at them, though fireballs and psychic charms are just as devastating as to other LoCD cannonfodder. They are much stronger than average humans, and especially more flexible, making them somewhat good fighters despite their utter lack of offensive spells. The only 'spell' they can actually do is Mirror-face, a much watered down version of Beth's Narcissus Reflection with a much lower success rate. Also, they cannot take the bodies of victims with them, except for actually running all the way to the HQ, carrying them. And I don't think Beth would be too fond of that. ^^; They have teleport, but only just enough to take themselves home. Of course, looking like a photo model-turned-mirror is not the best way to get around unnoticed, so each Narcissa has the ability to slip back into his or her old form for a short period of time. Only the hair remains the same. ^^

Back