Vous mourrez si vous chargez.
Quand Glyph parlait, la plupart des gens daignaient écouter - sa voix était un mélange de gravier et d'autorité, des mois et des mois de ne pas avoir été utilisé en augmentant son baryton à des niveaux que la plupart n'entendraient probablement qu'après les gueules de bois les plus sévères (elle a vu Bryn et a immédiatement pensé que cela aurait pu être quelque chose qu'elle avait expérimenté), et quand une femme sur un cheval imposant avec deux arbalètes vous regardait et parlait, il était probablement pour le mieux de tenir compte de ses paroles sagement. La plupart des chasseurs avaient appris que la manière difficile, choisissant de prendre leurs victoires limitées dans les petites escarmouches comme une expérience authentique, et le mélange capricieux de fierté et de naïveté était quelque chose qu'ils étaient souvent incapables de surmonter avant qu'il ne soit beaucoup trop tard.
Elle a sondé l'invraisemblable trio avec un œil dur, se concentrant sur chacun d'eux à tour de rôle, avant de se concentrer sur Conrad. Ses yeux se rétrécissaient, à peine visibles fentes, et le vitriol dans l'air était presque palpable pendant une seconde avant qu'elle regarde à partir, comme s'il n'était pas là, regardant directement à travers lui. Elle a pointé son arbalète à la tour et a donné à Cipher un petit coup de pouce avec son pied droit. Il passa un pas en avant, Glyph pivota son haut du corps et apporta son arbalète à ce qui restait de l'épave du toit. Il y avait normalement un "clic" satisfaisant avec des coups de feu, un bang pour vous faire savoir que la balle avait été tirée et que la mort était imminente. Toutes les armes de Glyph ont cédé quand le boulon d'énergie a été tiré était un bref éclair de lumière, et le plus souvent qui a été suivi par un cri inhumain.
Le démon qui restait dans le bâtiment tomba à l'étage, un trou dans sa tête, et Glyph se dirigea de nouveau vers l'avant, passant devant les trois chasseurs alors qu'elle cherchait à quitter le bâtiment. Elle était très consciente de toutes leurs positions, des années d'expérience se manifestant comme un « sixième sens », presque, quand elle a quitté le bâtiment. Elle était sûre que certains d'entre eux auraient quelque chose à dire, ou quelque chose à faire, mais elle était ici pour leur apprendre un fait quintessence de la chasse: Les actions ont parlé plus fort que les mots, et si tout ce qu'ils avaient était parler, les démons les mangeraient vivants. Ce que Bryn avait fait était courageux, oui, mais c'était aussi stupide. Ces blessures la rendirent plus lente, et même s'il y avait d'autres chasseurs, cette lenteur la tuerait un jour. Elle n'était pas sans racheter des qualités - le talent pouvait être vu en un coup d'oeil - mais la Hunt était un creuset dans lequel ses participants étaient tempérés ou réduits en cendres. Ce serait dommage de voir une nouvelle chute de sang prometteuse si tôt.
L'homme qu'elle avait vu était familier. Non pas à cause de son visage, de son épée ou de ses actes, mais il y avait une énergie qui l'entourait qu'elle connaissait comme un brin lâche dans la tapisserie de son passé : c'était la même énergie que ses propres armes et stilettos produisaient. Ceux qui ont été formés dans l'art de l'inscription des cristaux étaient très loin et très peu entre - et avec la honte de son père, elle avait imaginé qu'elle était la dernière participant à la chasse. Senser cette même énergie chez une autre personne était un peu choquant, mais cela la rendait plus en colère que curieuse - l'héritage du nom Laurent était censé mourir avec elle quand elle a quitté la capitale il y a toutes ces années. S'il avait trouvé un moyen de continuer, l'enquête serait son premier port d'escale après cette chasse.
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【Full Name】
Shauna Laurent
【Alias】
Glyph
【Gender】
Female
【Age】
35
【Sexuality】
Bisexual; Aromantic
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【Personality】
Glyph has been hardened by many years of solitude, and given the nature of the world in which she lives it is hardly surprising that this solitude has etched itself into her persona in the form of a rugged outer shell. Unlike most who choose to adopt this persona, Glyph has done so out of necessity. When one person loses as much as Glyph has, the only options are to close oneself off emotionally as she had chosen to do, or to crumble and die. This leads to what is perhaps the signifying trait of Glyph and perhaps all Hunters as a whole: Tenacity. Glyph refuses to give up any endeavour that she commits herself to regardless of any danger to her or any of her fleeting allies, and certainly refuses to back down from any fight that is brought to her.
Glyph, many years ago, could not boast being faster, stronger, or more skilled at Magecraft than most other people. She was not born with any innate talent but her quick mind, and as a result her entire life has been spent working hard for what she desires. Discipline is a virtue that Glyph has forced herself to master for the sake of keeping herself and those she cares for alive, and though she will not readily admit it in conversation, she suspects that many other Hunters lack the innate capacity for true discipline, which is why so many of the extant towns from the capitals have fallen to hordes of demons.
Glyph is not a hateful person, as she does not waste any resources that she feels are scarce (which, as time goes on, extends to an increasingly high number of things) on those unworthy of her efforts. What Glyph loses in capacity for hatred and vengeance, she makes up for in contempt and a quick tongue. She does not keep grudges, but she keeps the memory of everyone that has ever wronged her close to her heart for her own survival and comfort. Glyph has a huge capacity for conversation, but she rarely finds any folk worthy of talking to, and does not like to waste words. She will endure days, if not weeks, of periods of silence, preferring only to hunt and let her actions take the reins of expression.
Of particular note is Glyph's horse, Cipher. The stallion is Glyph's only real connection to her emotional side that she has left after the years of losses she has endured in the past - and his protection and wellbeing are her utmost priority at all times and at all costs. Cipher returns this affection to a degree that most cannot comprehend, and while he is not just an average horse, possessing an intellect and sense of self beyond any wild animal. Due to most establishments being ill-equipped to bed a horse, Glyph has taken to sleeping in the stables where they are available - perhaps another nod to the immense presence of mind and tenacity that this woman possesses.
All in all, Glyph is not so much the product of talent as a great deal of hard work, and she has been tempered into the cautious if effective person she is now by a past characterised by heartbreak and loss. This sounds cliché to some, but for Glyph, it is the only reality that she knows.

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【History】
 The woman who is now known as Glyph was once Shauna Laurent, the daughter of a prominent artisan that worked on the crystals designed to keep the cities safe. The story behind her fall from grace in this family is a simple one, and it needs little explanation beyond her father's work resulting in the creation of a new "ghost town" due to unauthorised experimentation upon the crystal that harnessed the magic necessary to maintain the barrier.
Shauna had always followed in her father's footsteps, and though she did not necessarily believe in his lacklustre morals nor have the genius he did to keep up with them, some semblance of his talent was imbued into her genetics - in some ways, she was his ultimate experiment, a simulacrum of the highest order to capture the structured ways in which magic flows, and the living embodiment of its forced modulation. This manifested not as talent, nor as physical attributes, but as tenacity. It was evident when Shauna was growing up that she refused to acquiesce to any of her obstacles, and that their presence seemed only to make her more determined to succeed in any way that she knew how.
Perhaps this is why her father's disgrace and exile fashioned her into the person that she has become - she is but a living series of patterns responding to the data that she has observed, and this had been a failsafe to carry on his legacy. Perhaps such concepts are strictly within the realm of the figurative, and all that Shauna had was ripped from her in her inchoate stages such that the trauma shaped the rest of her life.
Regardless of the philosophy of her earliest years, Shauna's life became markedly more difficult after her father's exile when she was seventeen - nowhere in the major cities would accept her work due to the miasma that surrounded the Laurent name, and though she could likely change her name and her face to get work elsewhere, she did not have enough natural talent that she could get a comfortable job anywhere else in the world.
Shauna's alternatives were many, but the path she chose was the path of the Hunter, and her very nature compelled her to see it through to the very end, regardless of how badly she knew it might turn out. On her very first hunt Shauna had a brush with death as her gun jammed and a demon left a scar on her face and took her right eye - only the timely intervention of a rival hunting group saved her from certain death.
The wound would have discouraged or even killed most normal individuals, but Shauna's tenacity was such that she could never give up on her life. She fought through the injuries and somehow managed to end up having her eye and face replaced. Perhaps her name still carried some merit, or perhaps luck had chosen to keep her alive. Given the remainder of her past, luck may not be the answer to that question.
The hunter that saved her life was named Mateus, and though he was a rival, he saw in Shauna something that drew him to her - while the two did not cross paths until months after Shauna's recovery, he was not particularly far behind her at any given point. More than once he intervened without her knowledge to keep her safe, and this was a fact hidden from her for many years. Mateus crossed paths with Shauna's on the eve of her 19th birthday, with both hunters having taken on the same bounty and having arrived to make the kill simultaneously.
At this point, Shauna no longer went by her previous name. Her new face and new eye allowed her to change her name, to reset the annals of history, and to make her living as a hunter without being harassed by the shade of her father's failures and her near-death experience. She introduced herself as Glyph, and he introduced himself as Mateus.
The kill they made together was exemplary - the pinnacle of the creed of the bounty hunters: Efficient, Clean, and Safe. When he suggested that the two continue their careers together, given their success, Glyph was hard pressed to say no. Mateus' charisma and persistently benevolent nature fascinated the more hardened and skeptical Glyph, and this fascination eventually turned to love as they are wont to do in such situations. The pair made an unstoppable team, and their early careers looked promising.
After six years of hunting, the pair had made enough money to settle down with a child and live in one of the big cities, but Glyph could not abandon the dream. She insisted on remaining a hunter, to help people, and Mateus could not deny the call of his good heart. Glyph eventually became pregnant, however, and was forced to cease her hunting for a time while their child was born. Luck, it seemed, had seen it fit to bless a womb with a child... But chance is a fickle and capricious mistress, and her tithes are many and absolute.
One night, after a successful bounty, Mateus returned to Glyph's side only to be tailed by a rival group of hunters. They were not overly skilled, but liquor numbed their pain and surprise gave them an advantage - but their target was not Mateus. His pregnant wife was one they knew that they could beat, and their strike was swift and brutal. While there are further details, they are not fit to be spoken of even in the records of the past, and all that shall be said is that Glyph lost her child and narrowly survived.
The next few years were difficult for Glyph, who struggled to cope with her promising future being ripped from her grasp. She focused more on her work and less on clinging to the remnants of her now-shattered future, retreating into the escapism that fanatical devotion to a cause could offer. She began delving into the past, into her father's work and into the work of others that researched and crafted crystals, and eventually even took to the forge herself. While she did not possess a particular talent for it, her background started her at a higher level than most could dream to and her determination paved the way forwards in two short years. She created for herself two crossbows and a suit of custom armour, powered by enhanced crystals that she procured through less-than-legal ways.
When Glyph returned to the hunt this time, she was more prepared, and she and Mateus continued their onslaught against all demonkind. The deed that she is known most for is the same deed that she wishes to forget and undo the most.
Glyph and Mateus happened across an outpost along a poorly maintained train line whose crystal was about to fail. Glyph's recent exploits in the art of crafting crystals gave her the idea to complete her father's work, and though she attempted to fix it as best as she could, time was not on her side. A horde descended upon the town the moment the crystal broke, and unlike her father, Glyph tried to stop it. A fool's errand, perhaps, but it was one that she had to try. Mateus and Glyph kept the horde off of the town for a good hour, slaughtering many demons and thinning the horde out considerably, but Mateus slipped on a loose roof tile and fell to his death in the maws of the hungry demons below.
The blind fury that engulfed Glyph that night saved the town from the horde, miraculous as it was, reduced her to almost nothing. She fixed the crystal as best as she could, evacuated the people, and wandered off into the wastes to die. There was nothing left at that point for her to continue towards.
In the wastes, she happened across a young foal that would eventually come to be known as Cipher, her horse. A primal part of her psyche latched onto the maternal instinct that she had never gotten to nurture and she took the foal in. Glyph has not changed much since that fateful day, but Cipher grew up and the pair became inseparable, and though she came close to breaking she has never given up on her dream of mastering the hunt - and it seems that she never shall.
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【Weapons/Tools and Magic】

Hand Crossbows - Glyph's hand crossbows are ingeniously designed and crafted weapons, lithe and light enough to be carried surreptitiously and fired dextrously, but powerful enough to slay even the most resilient of demons. Their mechanisms are extremely complex, as is their history, and the only thing that can obviously be discerned about them from a simple glance is that they house powerfully charged crystals at their cores and along their bows.
The crossbows do not require external ammunition, as the crystals coalesce energy along specified patterns carved into the wood and metal to create arrows of pure kinetic force whenever the trigger is released. Due to this magical augmentation, the crossbows are endlessly repeating for as long as Glyph can weave magical energy through them. Glyph is talented at the art of Magecraft, having been born into a family whose profession involved the enchantment of items and work on the crystals that protect the towns, but her magical reserves are certainly limited (especially given the number of magical devices that she employs). The crossbows are not capable of jamming and are also practically indestructible - they are also rendered ineffective for use by others as a symbol tattooed onto Glyph's palms is required to activate the crystals contained within.
Stilettos - Glyph's footwear has been designed specifically to increase her height and dexterity when she is moving, but also to allow for changes in unstable terrain and maximum energy conversion while running. The heels have a core of solid, reinforced crystal that allow Glyph to channel runic platforms through the apex of the heels which can be maintained indefinitely provided that sufficient magical energy can be expended to keep them and that the apex of the heel remains connected to the platform at any time.
The platforms are capable of holding a limited amount of weight - they are able to indefinitely hold Glyph's weight, but anything major beyond that is impossible to maintain without cracking and breaking the platform. The platforms are exceptionally resilient to physical force, and can be used as makeshift shields if necessary, but the energy conversion rate for them is particularly poor in these instances, which Glyph cannot maintain.
The same patterns that adorn Glyph's heels have been etched into Cipher's horseshoes, allowing her to channel these platforms beneath Cipher's feet should such be necessary - this requires a considerably higher expenditure of magical energy, however, and doing so renders Glyph unable to fire her crossbows or utilise any other magic for the duration.
Magecraft – Glyph is a talented spellcaster, but her magic relies heavily on the use of carved crystals to create runes. Currently Glyph only knows the patterns necessary to create kinetic energy, but is able to learn new patterns to create other effects. Glyph’s carving of crystals allows her to tune their catalytic effects towards a single spell or type of spell, but vastly increases its power and its scope as a result.
Cipher - Glyph's horse Cipher is worthy of particular attention, as he is quite clearly no simple beast as most animals in the world are. While it seems unlikely or even outright impossible, Cipher bears certain traits that seem to signify his heritage as being at least partially demonic - there is a glint to his eyes and a sheen to his coat that seem out of place, and though horses are not the most capable animals for representing sapience, Cipher seems to be abnormally close to that level, sharing a bond with his rider that transcends the horse-rider relationship that most people experience.
Cipher is clearly not a human, and clearly does not have the same intellect as a human, but his fierce determination to protect Glyph is evident at even the slightest glance, and his loyalty far outweighs that of even the most closely pair-bonded humans. Cipher cannot speak, but he seems to have the uncanny ability to communicate with Glyph through whinnies, brays, and body language alone - the two communicate on a more animalistic level, but that does not render their communication any less effective.
Physically, Cipher is an incredible specimen - his muscles are well-developed, lean, and he has always been taken exceptionally good care of, and the depth of their relationship is such that it is not uncommon to witness Cipher eating when Glyph cannot feed them both. Cipher is well-suited to the throes of war, being both heavily armoured and exceptionally strong, and he has been injured a total of two times in his entire life with Glyph. She has taken savage attacks that would have killed Cipher had they hit him, and in turn he has protected her from even the most determined of Hordes in times of need.
The times that Glyph is not seen either riding or walking next to Cipher are rare indeed, and Glyph even sleeps riding atop her beloved horse. Most humans cannot claim to truly be in tune with another being, and though Glyph's social skills leave a lot to be desired, any passer-by can detect the overwhelming bond of trust and camaraderie that this woman and her horse share.