EQUINOX

Created in 1971, EQUINOX is an early model of AI, an advanced artificial human outfitted with the newly conceived artificial soul, a recent advancement that got her a lot of media attention in her childhood. Growing up to become increasingly rebellious as a result of this media presence and her creators' expectations, EQUINOX eventually met her future wife, Alice Kang, and started a relationship with her. Despite its promising start, this relationship ultimately descended into increasingly unhealthy, even abusive, territory, and EQUINOX was manipulated into creating the Solar Drive, a magical solar reactor of extreme power, which Alice would use in her efforts for world domination under the name SOLSTICE.

Escaping her wife's oppressive eye after a failed suicide attempt, EQUINOX recovered from her abuse over the next two years of her life, and resolved to kill her ex-wife to prevent her from destroying the world any further, but mostly for herself, to avenge the life she ruined. To this end, she mastered many magics from all across Earth, becoming a formidable witch, one of the greatest the planet ever had seen. With this power and knowledge, EQUINOX was able to seemingly kill SOLSTICE. Leaving the dying Earth beyond, she left with her new family, and eventually met Kyarne, a star spirit who she fell in love with. Together with her new lover, EQUINOX settled on a distant planet where she could share her knowledge with others as a magic professor.

Backstory
Designed over several years and ultimately created in 1971, EQUINOX was a simple, early civilian model AI created and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. After spending her first year of life as a simple, childlike computer program, she was given a synthetic body and raised by one of her creators. As an early AI, she was subject to a lot of media attention, much of which was negative, and was treated more like an experiment than a person.

EQUINOX, as a child, was very curious and shy, with a drive to learn being a key part of her design from the beginning. It only grew stronger over time, as she was exposed to more and more things and learned more and more. Unfortunately, as she reached adolescence, things only grew worse. Struggling with the lessened but still present media presence looming over her, along with the expectations and cold treatment of her ‘family’, EQUINOX became increasingly quiet and jaded.

Becoming more and more rebellious, EQUINOX ended up in the punk movement and ran away from home so that she would finally be able to exist on her own terms. She started smoking, and made her first real friends, away from the constant oppressive eye of her family and their expectations. For the first time, she truly began to feel happy, even as she struggled with the issues that remained and her own relationships.

Slowly mellowing out as she became an adult, EQUINOX took on a simple, minimum wage job to try and support her dream to go to a school for magic, and lived on her own in this way for about a year. She stayed in contact with her friends, and things were good for her for quite some time. Still, she struggled with loneliness and a fear of intimacy after the collapses of her previous relationships.

Then, suddenly, everything in her life changed. On one day, seemingly just like any other, a particularly tall and gorgeous customer entered into the store EQUINOX worked at, and began flirting with her. She said her name was Alice, and she bled with such charm that EQUINOX found herself growing infatuated near instantly. They went on date after date, as Alice so lovingly provided everything EQUINOX felt she had been missing for so long. She was treated like the most special thing in the world, and was lavished with attention like she had never been before.

Soon enough, Alice proposed to her, and EQUINOX gleefully accepted. But in the months that followed, Alice’s true colors began to bleed through, as she slowly seized control of the wedding and sidelined many of EQUINOX’s friends out of jealousy. What little say EQUINOX had in the wedding quickly bled away to nothing, and the wedding they had was the wedding Alice had always dreamed of - but not EQUINOX.

Ultimately, Alice could not keep her true nature from revealing itself, and she manipulated her wife into creating the Solar Drive from military blueprints using her magical knowledge. EQUINOX had little choice, and went along with her wishes, creating for her a weapon unlike any other, a source of power that would make her one of - if not the - strongest thing on Earth.

Once the Solar Drive was complete, Alice replaced her heart with it, and immediately took upon her title of SOLSTICE. She went about starting the war she had wanted for so long, and in her conquests, EQUINOX was left, forgotten, in a bunker several kilometers beneath the earth, safe from harm, but utterly alone save for bodyguards completely loyal to SOLSTICE.

EQUINOX’s physical and mental health only further deteriorated, as she realized that exposure to the radiation of the Solar Drive, combined with her smoking, had caused her to develop cancer. Gradually, she grew suicidal - while she couldn’t truly process that SOLSTICE was anything but good to her and that the fault was not hers, she still found herself depressed, listless, scared, and lonely.

This ultimately culminated in a suicide attempt. It was something that, by every right, should’ve been lethal - a single gunshot to the head. Yet, somehow, something that could only be described as a miracle occurred. EQUINOX survived, though she was badly injured. SOLSTICE’s bodyguards, however, did not realize this, and, panicking and fearful of how she’d react, attempted to hide her body outside.

There, finally outside of the bunker for the first time in years, EQUINOX regained consciousness and wandered around aimlessly, half-dead, before being discovered by a group of roaming medics. While her wounds were healed, they didn’t have the resources to deal with her steadily worsening cancer, and so the hopeless EQUINOX simply accepted death, quietly.

But it would not come. She did not die. As day by day passed, she grew closer with her saviors and began to open up to them, slowly. She grew particularly close to a pair of AI named Corona and ECLIPSE. When she finally brought herself to speak to them about what SOLSTICE did to her, she was greeted with warm acceptance and support, something that she had been lacking for so many years. It was overwhelming, and EQUINOX slowly began to truly feel that she did not deserve what occurred.

With that, slowly, came the hatred. As she found herself lying alone, expecting to die, for so long, EQUINOX realized that SOLSTICE was to blame for so much of her situation. The world around them was dying, and SOLSTICE had all but won her war. After months of quietly debating with herself on what to do, and if she’d even be able to do it, EQUINOX left the people she had grown to see as family, and ventured into the wasteland in search of vengeance and the means to enact it.

First, she sought what she had always desired - as much magical knowledge as possible. EQUINOX traveled across Earth in search of magic, finding survivors who could teach her and records of ancient magic that she desperately studied. What drove her was a pure, burning hatred and a desire for vengeance, which only grew stronger with every passing moment, pushing her through her fears and struggles to stay alive.

With the knowledge she steadily gained, EQUINOX cured her own cancer by giving herself radiation therapy through magic, and carved runes and alchemical symbols into the inside and outside of her body. It took over a year, but EQUINOX ultimately mastered nearly every secret that Earth had to offer. She had suffered through unimaginable pain and anguish. The intense emotions that she underwent during her journeys drove her magical power to higher and higher peaks - until she became an existence that could match SOLSTICE.

At that point, EQUINOX steeled herself and confronted her ex-wife at the center of a massive storm that she created herself. She angrily vented her every frustration and all of her pain, finally making all her struggles known, and made her resolve to kill her clear. In response, SOLSTICE snapped, heartbroken and enraged, and declared the same goal. The following fight destroyed what remained of Earth, and finally resulted in SOLSTICE’s defeat.

As EQUINOX ripped the Solar Drive from her chest, the dying SOLSTICE choked out one last, desperate “I love you” before she fell to the ground, seemingly dead. EQUINOX then left her shattered homeworld with the people who had become her family, and set out to find a new home.

In these journeys, she met a star spirit named Kyarne. For years, EQUINOX had given up on the idea of a relationship, the trauma she had undergone at SOLSTICE’s hands being so severe that she could not ever imagine herself ever going into a relationship again. But Kyarne slowly managed to incite stronger and stronger feelings in her, and they eventually entered into a relationship.

It took time. EQUINOX struggled with trust issues far worse than anything she had before, but with Kyarne’s help, she slowly stabilized and grew happier, leaving SOLSTICE and Earth far in her past. She took on a simple job on a faraway planet as a magic instructor, happy to pursue her passions on her own, with her new wife.

... and yet. EQUINOX’s paranoia remained strong, as the nagging fear that SOLSTICE somehow remained alive and would return constantly reared its head. But as scary as that was, EQUINOX told herself it wouldn’t be that bad if she had survived and came back for vengeance.

After all.

There’s no way EQUINOX could be satisfied with just killing her once.

Appearance
EQUINOX cuts a cold and professional figure, standing tall and proud, carrying herself with a quiet, dignified composure. She's nearly six feet tall, and has a solid, stocky build and broad shoulders. She's quite chubby, though she is quite muscular underneath, and has long, shapely legs that compliment her wide hips. While tall, she often appears to be shorter due to poor posture and her very closed off body language. Her skin is a pale brown that has lightened over the years due to a lack of a sunlight. In stark contrast, her eyes are a bright indigo that still seems to be empty, and her gaze is cold and passionless. Only when her emotions are at their peaks do her eyes suddenly light up with intensity, almost as if they were crackling with electricity. Her hair is a deep indigo, close in color to her eyes, and is about shoulder length. It's full, soft, and fluffy, framing her face. Her bangs are long and swept ever so slightly to the right. Due to her poor eyesight, which has only worsened over time, she wears simple, full-framed glasses, and occasionally wears sunglasses instead.

As a relic from her rebellious phase as a youth, EQUINOX has several piercings - she has two upper lobe piercings on both ears, and a simple stud in her tongue. While it is seldom seen due to her conservative manner of dress, she has a relatively plain navel piercing. More strikingly and much more obvious, her arms are covered in magical tattoos that start at her wrists and connect across her back. They're carved into her skin in a pattern that resembles circuitry, making a noticeable indentation, and the ink is conductive. They have many symbols - alchemical and runic - integrated into the design, with the alchemical symbols for silver, gold, and platinum being particularly notable. When EQUINOX uses her magic, her tattoos are flooded with crackling electricity. EQUINOX wears minimal makeup, mostly eyeliner and eyeshadow, and, on occasion, light lipstick.

Most of the time, EQUINOX dresses professionally and conservatively, looking more like an office lady than a witch, as to perfect her aura of constant, cold composure. She usually wears any one of a variety of suits, favoring single-breasted jackets in solid dark colors - mostly black. She wears lighter color dress shirts, usually white, and simple ties, preferably red. Her outfit is completed by a knee-length pencil skirt, black tights, and heels or flats, often in red. When going into combat, EQUINOX removes her jacket and tie, and rips off her sleeves to allow for as much freedom of movement as possible, exposing her tattoos.

EQUINOX's more casual outfits still remain fairly conservative, retaining the dark colors that she favors, particularly blue, purple, red, and black. She wears a lot of coats, such as trench coats and heavier, double-breasted jackets. Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone as nerdy as her, she often wears sweater vests with dress shirts. She wears dress shirts or button-up blouses in most of her outfits. On very rare occasions, when she's in a more showy mood, EQUINOX wears elaborate dresses - she's particularly into Lolita fashion, and likes Gothic Lolita best. She rarely wears pants, and thus wears skirts, typically long, in many varieties, such as pencil, flared, and pleated, and often with suspenders. She nearly always wears tights, or just really tall socks. On days where she's just content to lie around at home, she wears baggy sweaters and sweatpants.

Personality
As befitting someone with such a professional air and wardrobe, EQUINOX is a quiet, distant, and serious person, to such a degree that describing her as 'cold' would perhaps be an understatement. EQUINOX is an incredibly asocial person who dislikes any sort of prolonged social interaction, finding it to be an unwanted distraction that drains her energy, and she thus avoids it constantly and spends most of her time alone. As a result, she tends to struggle in social situations, but she cares little, seeing the occasional struggles of conversation to be worth it. Stoic and constantly speaking in a cold, flat monotone, EQUINOX appears to be emotionless and perfectly composed at all times - and yet, nothing could be further than the truth. Moreso than anything else, EQUINOX is an intensely emotional person.

A perfectionist and workaholic at heart, EQUINOX is driven by the constant need to feel productive, and thus has something in the works at nearly any given moment. Once, her perfectionist tendencies held her back more, but she's ironed out a lot of them over time so that she can get more done - if something isn't perfect, she can always improve on it more in the future, anyways. She's prone to pushing aside her other responsibilities in favor of getting more and more work done, and consequently misses out on a lot of sleep, though this isn't the worst issue for a mage as powerful as she. While she can spend quite a lot of time lazing about, she always gets hit by the need to get back to work soon enough and finds laziness to be detestable in herself. EQUINOX struggles with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, particularly intrusive thoughts, though she has some minor compulsions that don't cause much trouble. As made clear by her remarkably clean workspace, she's quite organized and neat, but she tends to be constantly unsatisfied with how she's organized things, reorganizing them over and over again, much to her irritation. She was once troubled by extremely controlling tendencies, and though she's gotten better at handling them, she's still a control freak that dislikes disorder in her surroundings.

Through all of the experiences and successes and failures of her long life, EQUINOX has developed quite the ego, and is an incredibly strong, confident person who rarely, if ever, falters. She has no shame in admitting that she's an extremely selfish person who is driven solely by her own desires and goals - if anything, she's proud of becoming someone that can shamelessly, fearlessly work in her best interest. Out of EQUINOX's many goals, the most abstract is the ambitious desire to reach the top of everything she participates in, to be the strongest and most capable around without fail. She's fully aware that this is a coping mechanism, and instead of overindulging it, she approaches it leisurely, accepting that becoming the absolute strongest is probably impossible. Far more important to her is her intelligence - EQUINOX wishes to constantly, endlessly expand her knowledge so that she can become the smartest person possible, and many of her goals are centered around simply learning more. Due to her arrogance, she looks down on most people and assumes that they're not as intelligent as she is, though she may keep it to herself. EQUINOX strongly dislikes when her perception of herself as the smartest person around is threatened, and overacts to compensate. She tends to unintentionally come off as immensely condescending and obnoxious when talking about things she knows well, as if showing off her intellect, which she is absolutely fine with. Though she likes to see others learn, she lacks patience and makes for a very poor teacher as a result. While her short-term memory is awful, her long-term memory is encyclopedic - when it comes to things that aren't people, names, and faces, anyways, which she tends to subconsciously process as unimportant garbage data.

Everything EQUINOX feels, she feels with untold intensity, even if it remains mostly unexpressed. As opposed to the cold, distant person she takes up around most people, she is gentle, caring, and loving with her loved ones, and shows her positive emotions more easily when among those she trusts. In these situations, she jokes around much more - of course, most of her jokes are cheesy, bad, or both, though she finds herself hilarious and has a penchant for awful puns. This is all rather embarrassing to her. Her work and magical interests are areas of great pride and passion to her, and she is quick to excitedly talk about them to anyone who'll listen, going on and on without realizing it. Despite this, EQUINOX is a very angry person deep inside and struggles with her short temper constantly. She's irritable and quick to snap, but has a much better hold on her temper than she once did, rarely showing any sign of anger unless she's pushed to her limits. At this point, her destructive nature becomes clear - she violently vents her anger on herself and her possessions, throwing objects and clawing at her face as she attempts to ground herself. Once she's calmed down, shame sets in, and she frantically tries to fix all the damage she's caused. Her tendency for destruction is something that can cross over into sadism, which only truly shows itself when she faces the person she hates most. As opposed to her usual cold persona, around her ex-wife, EQUINOX becomes eerily serene and enthusiastic, even as she trembles with overwhelming hatred and rage. Given this, it is hardly surprising that she enjoys fighting as much as she does.

Bitter and neurotic at heart, EQUINOX is a spiteful and unforgiving person for whom grudges can last decades, if not lifetimes. Plagued by anxiety and paranoia, EQUINOX has a poor attention span and tends to fidget when she has to sit still for too long, and her paranoia is often vague and uncertain, but strong all the same. Her trust is an extremely difficult thing to gain, but can be lost at the drop of a coin. She is very private as a result, keeping many aspects of her personal life a secret from others and rarely speaking about herself. This is doubtlessly linked to her strong need to never show the slightest sign of weakness. This contributes greatly to her stoic persona, though she does have genuine issues with sincerely expressing her emotions and tends not to bother because of it. What she wants is to intimidate others with her inexpressive, cold nature, making it clear that she doesn't have any interest in getting to know most people any better than she already does.

For all of her struggles with her trauma, and the fear and paranoia it has left her with, EQUINOX cannot imagine herself without it, and doesn't wish to have anything in her past changed at all. Her trauma acts as her greatest motivator, constantly pushing her forwards, through all adversity and every hardship.

SOLSTICE
The relationship between EQUINOX and the woman that used to be her wife and the emotions running beneath it are... complex, to say the least. Even now, when all that EQUINOX feels for Alice is an almost disturbingly intense loathing, she admits to herself that the passion she had felt in that relationship was much more intense than any other. Not necessarily more passion overall, and not necessarily more love than she has for Kyarne, but a much different kind of passion. Whereas her relationship with Kyarne was built on strong feelings, it was a more controlled burn, but with Alice... from the beginning, the intense emotions burned out of control. In retrospect, the unhealthy way the relationship developed seems like it should've been obvious to EQUINOX, but at the time, she was too drunk on the attention and love she had gotten. A childhood of neglect made it easy for Alice to make her feel finally, truly loved and wanted.

... Of course, that was soon ruined as Alice's selfishness slowly broke EQUINOX down over the course of their relationship. Even when caught up in the warmth of the relationship, EQUINOX was able to slowly pick up on Alice's subtle manipulations and guilt tripping - it was not her first unhealthy relationship, after all. While she considered simply ending things in response, she could not bring herself to end such a promising relationship just because Alice wasn't truly perfect. Instead, EQUINOX brought these things up, and attempted to work through them with Alice, but this quickly turned out to be a worse decision. While Alice would supposedly work on these things, she never really did, and her further behavior just got increasingly subtle, to the point that it became almost impossible to sort it out. By the time EQUINOX realized that Alice had just pulled her in deeper with false promises and manipulative tugs, she had already sank her fangs deep into her and trapped her in her coils.

Yet, she did not stop loving her. She couldn't. Even with the knowledge that their relationship was hurting her, EQUINOX couldn't stop and slowly gave up on trying to improve things as Alice took control of their relationship, blaming herself for its every failing. Their marriage only worsened Alice's grip on her as her jealousy caused her to sideline many of EQUINOX's friends during their wedding, which she completely took control of. In the years that followed, Alice couldn't keep her ambitions back and, using blueprints and plans she had stolen from the government, forced EQUINOX to create the Solar Drive for her own use. As this began, their relationship took another steep dive to become more abusive as Alice began violently venting her anger on her wife, often strangling her during moments of blinding rage. Though Alice always seemed to put on such believable shows of apologetic waterworks after, she never stopped, and only became increasingly violent over time.

Despondent, lonely, and struggling with lung cancer, EQUINOX attempted to take her life as Alice ravaged Earth's surface. Though she survived through sheer luck, she was able to escape the bunker she was trapped in with her wife, finally gaining time away from her, for the first time in years. While it took a long time, with the new friends she found in this time, she was able to get the help needed to start recovery and begin accepting the abusive nature of her relationship. It took a while, but as EQUINOX began to put things together and look back on Alice's behavior, her awful, rancid personality became increasingly clear, and left with little else to feel, EQUINOX lost herself in increasingly intense and visceral anger and even hatred for her. The memories of their relationship's finest hours remained, but only caused these emotions to intensify as EQUINOX struggled with nightmares and traumatic flashbacks of her life with Alice. So, desperate for vengeance, for everything, EQUINOX fully devoted herself to this.

When they fought on Earth, though EQUINOX definitely hated her, she still loved her. It was complicated, but despite her misgivings and despite the uncertainties, EQUINOX pushed through to claim her vengeance and seemingly kill the woman who had been her wife. Even with Alice gone from her life, however, she continued to haunt her. Rarely did a day go by in which EQUINOX didn't spend hours obsessing over their relationship and replaying their best or worst moments, constantly struggling with the gravity of what she had done. While she was able to gradually push these things further and further from her mind as she made a new life with Kyarne, the trauma, the doubt, and the fear remain. Despite having killed her once before and proven to herself that she could survive such a relationship, EQUINOX's greatest fear remains the concept of being trapped in a relationship with SOLSTICE - or someone similarly awful - once more.

The years have not been kind to EQUINOX's opinion on SOLSTICE. Whatever love remained has boiled over completely into a hatred of much greater intensity. The time that EQUINOX does spare to think about SOLSTICE in any more detail than a passing thought is riddled with curses, rage, and disturbingly vivid sadistic fantasies of strangulation and electrocution. While EQUINOX may not perhaps ever truly get over her fear of SOLSTICE, such an emotion certainly comes second to her loathing. Despite all the hate she may feel for her, however, even now EQUINOX still fondly remembers their better moments from time to time. She can't help it, and it only makes her hate SOLSTICE more. To have ruined something that could've been so perfect just for the sake of her ego... EQUINOX often wonders why she ever fell for SOLSTICE in the first place, even if she may know the answer.

Powers and Statistics
Tier: High 5-A | 4-B | 3-C

Powers and Abilities: Genius Intelligence, Mastery in Martial Arts, Magic, Extrasensory Perception (Mages maintain a constant, perfect, and precise image of their surroundings by analyzing them through magic. EQUINOX's is atomically precise and she can perceive phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum), Self-Sustenance (Types 1 and 2; EQUINOX's transcendence of her body means that she does not need to maintain it by breathing, drinking, eating, or sleeping, though rest is psychologically necessary), Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Flight, Forcefield Creation, Electromagnetism Manipulation (Electricity, Magnetism, Molecular, and Radiation Manipulation), Causality Manipulation, Conceptual Manipulation (Type 4; Concepts in Agency are purely personal constructions, but those who can manipulate them affect and bring them into existence as abstractions; however, even then, they do not govern all reality, but can be imposed onto it on a limited scale to alter reality), Fate Manipulation, Gravity Manipulation, Heat Manipulation (She can alter the temperature of her surroundings), Higher-Dimensional Manipulation (Can manipulate and transmit information through higher spatial dimensions, and create multidimensional constructs using Arcana Drive), Information Manipulation and Analysis (Can analyze and break down others into information), Mind Manipulation, Physics Manipulation, Plasma Manipulation, Pocket Reality Manipulation, Probability Manipulation, Spatial Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Weather Manipulation (Also allows for Air Manipulation), Absorption (Passively absorbs electricity, and can absorb others by breaking them down into information, gaining access to their abilities), Incorporeality and Intangibility (She can transform into incorporeal electricity and information), Possession (By converting herself into raw electromagnetic energy and information, EQUINOX can invade the bodies of others and overwrite their souls with her own), Power Mimicry (Can analyze and copy other spells to use them herself), Power Nullification (Can counter spells as they're cast after analyzing them), Precognition (Arcana Drive can predict possible futures through meticulous analysis of EQUINOX's surroundings and opponents), Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, Reality Warping with Override Sigils (Override Sigils can be used to overwrite the laws of physics), her attacks (physical and magical) damage the soul just as they do the body, Reactive Evolution (An Absolute Barrier automatically adapts to attacks to become more resistant, and EQUINOX's attacks automatically react to her opponent's defenses to become more effective and painful, adapting in response to adaptation), Resistance to physical / magical attacks (Absolute Barriers protect the user from attacks on all levels of existence, whether mental, spiritual, or conceptual, as well as hax such as Causality Manipulation, Matter Manipulation, Reality Warping, Spatial Manipulation, and Time Manipulation), Acausality (Type 2; A mage's history, present, and fate all exist independently of the past and future), Immortality (Types 1, 3, and 6), Regeneration (Low-Godly; EQUINOX has reached apotheosis, transcending her body and developing an immortal soul that needs no container. She can reform her body when all that remains is her soul and its information)

Attack Potency: Dwarf Star level (Fought against SOLSTICE and destroyed the Earth over the course of their fight, throwing the Moon at her and converting 80% of its mass into energy) | Solar System level (She can casually release attacks with power that surpasses the strongest Gamma Ray Bursts, destroy star systems with Sigma Circuit, and despite the gap in their strength, she can fight evenly with SOLSTICE) | Galaxy level (Comparable to Milky Way and SOLSTICE at her strongest).

Speed: Massively FTL (Moved a few hundred kilometers faster than SOLSTICE's radiation beam traveled a couple kilometers) | Massively FTL+ (She can rapidly fly interstellar distances and fight at these high speeds, keeping pace with the likes of Terror, whose attacks can quickly travel from one star system to another) | Massively FTL+ (Much faster than before, fast enough to quickly move across and out the bounds of the galaxy).

Lifting Strength: Stellar (Telekinetically threw the Moon at high speeds) | Stellar (Much stronger than before, and can lift Kyarne, a literal star, with minimal difficulty) | Multi-Stellar (Comparable to the likes of Remnant, who can fit multiple stars in their orbit)

Striking Strength: Dwarf Star Class (Injured SOLSTICE with her physical blows and ultimately overpowered her, ripping the Solar Drive from her chest) | Solar System Class (Her physical strength is in the same league as her magical power) | Galactic Class

Durability: Dwarf Star level (Survived planet-splitting blows and beam attacks from SOLSTICE, and survived the explosion of the Moon when she converted it into energy) | Solar System level | Galaxy level

Stamina: Extremely high. One of EQUINOX's greatest strengths is her incredible stamina, endurance, and determination, leading to someone who never gives up and always keeps fighting. Even after taking many severe blows and overtaxing herself, she can fight against, overpower, and outlast the similarly stubborn SOLSTICE. Injuries to her physical body are of no consequence to her, and even extensive damage to her soul cannot slow her down.

Range: Interplanetary (Created a storm the size of the Great Red Spot, which completely encompassed the Earth) | Interstellar | Galactic

Standard Equipment: Nothing notable.

Intelligence: Supergenius. EQUINOX's greatest weapon is her intelligence - it is for a very real reason that she is considered Earth's greatest witch, as no other mage has reached the level of her magical understanding and mastery. She has completely mastered every single magical secret on Earth, even deciphering ancient, mythical spells that hadn't been used in thousands of years, and reaching the legendary state of apotheosis symbolized by the Philosopher's stone in alchemy, which had been a lost art for quite some time. After years upon years of magical research and work, EQUINOX's computing abilities and mathematical knowledge have far surpassed those of a supercomputer, capable of processing an unfathomable amount of calculations every second, and her mastery of magic has grown to encompass many extraterrestrial schools. Her memory is exceptional, allowing her to perfectly remember small details and the specifics of incredibly complex spells. She has incredible skills of observation and analysis and is capable of quickly understanding complex spells and even martial arts techniques just by watching them once. A genius scientist just as she is a witch, she perfectly understands complex branches of physics and mathematics and constantly puts them to use in her magic, allowing her to use incredibly complicated spells and control the world around her with unparalleled precision and finesse. While she is nowhere near the level of SOLSTICE and remains outmatched by her even after 300 years of training in the area of martial arts, she is a still master of hand-to-hand combat with a solid grasp of martial theory. However, she is not a fighter, but a mage - while her tactical knowledge is exceptional and allows her to keep up with and outsmart more combat-focused mages, her real strength is in her brilliant use of magic.

Weaknesses: EQUINOX can be somewhat overconfident and arrogant, though she typically doesn't let his put her in dangerous situations and is pragmatic enough to avoid underestimating opponents.

Key: Battle on Earth | Present Day | Arcana Drive

Abilities
Magic is the art of using one's Understanding to Control Fantasy.

EQUINOX’s magical array is unsurprisingly of the highest degree of quality. Given the sheer amount of time and focus she gives to refining her magic, this is only to be expected, and her magical array is well-suited to anything she may attempt to achieve through magic. It stretches throughout the entirety of her soul, and is only further strengthened by her iron will and artificial supplements in the form of the Argent Circuits.

Due to the strength of her magical array, EQUINOX can exert herself at the full extent of her magical power for several hours at a time, though fighting for such a long time will have a harsh effect on her magical array, and could prove lethal. If she is under intense emotion, this will happen faster, though she will exhibit a much higher output of magical energy.
 * Argent Circuits: An artificial supplement to EQUINOX’s magical array, taking the form of a complex system of magical tattoos carved into her arms and back. Tattooed with conductive ink, the patterns they make resemble circuitry, and have a number of magical symbols integrated, with the alchemical symbols for gold, silver, and platinum being of particular note. On top of supporting her magical array in the efficient storage and usage of magical energy, her “circuits” also automatically convert electricity - even small bursts of static - into more power. In addition, the symbols integrated into the tattoos allow for the immediate casting of high-level magic that would normally necessitate at least brief rituals or symbols. This allows EQUINOX to quickly use her most powerful spells without having to rely on the more energy and concentration-intensive true magic. It also greatly amplifies her natural bioelectricity, turning it into a constant source of energy and a defensive field that protects all of her body. If EQUINOX’s heart stops or runs into any abnormalities, her passive bioelectric aura will automatically correct them. Touching her without her permission will release a small shock at best, and a prolonged, lethal dosage of electricity at worst. She integrates this into her combat style, fighting at close ranges to best exploit it.

Absolute Barrier: A magical barrier that protects the user from external manipulation and attack, on every level of existence. An Absolute Barrier protects the user’s body, mind, and soul - their cells and atoms, the magical and physical forces keeping them together, and everything else. It is akin to a magical immune system, protecting the mage from threats and adapting to future attack.

It passively protects the user from most types of attack, manipulation, and control, as long as the barrier is strong enough - a witch of substantially greater power can punch straight through one. An Absolute Barrier is passively maintained at all times, even in sleep, requiring no energy to maintain, and can only be removed by a stronger witch actively stripping it away, or by the user consciously lowering them.

Flight: EQUINOX’s magical abilities allow her to easily fly for extended periods of time, as easily as she would walk. She can fly in combat without issue, and is more than fast enough to rapidly travel between solar systems and across the galaxy.

Radar: EQUINOX’s magical abilities sustain a constant 360° image of her surroundings, which is projected straight to her mind for processing. This radar is far more reliable than conventional senses, and is capable of easily picking up superluminal movement. It constantly operates at EQUINOX's maximum processing speed, even when it would normally be restricted so that she can function normally.

Superhuman Capabilities: EQUINOX’s magical abilities grant her strength, speed, endurance, and processing speed far above that of any normal human. Her body is essentially a work of magic on its own, so what was once a relatively normal human body has been so deeply inundated with magic that barriers capable of withstanding her most powerful attacks are a part of her body and soul, and her physical blows are nearly as powerful as her magic.

She can process information at a ridiculously fast rate, indescribable multitudes faster than any normal human - or even the average supercomputer - can. This allows her to process and analyze information during battles and run through the countless calculations needed for her magic.

She typically keeps this aspect of her magic restricted when she doesn’t need it, though it will automatically activate if her magic detects a threat. Unfortunately, it tends to activate during times of stress and anxiety, regardless of whether or not EQUINOX is in legitimate danger.

Martial Arts: Though EQUINOX would be the last to describe herself as a martial artist, she’s spent some time honing her skills in close quarters combat, both leading up to and following her fight with SOLSTICE on Earth, after being overwhelmed in hand-to-hand despite her best efforts. Though EQUINOX will always be a mage first, she’s explored a number of martial arts and continues to do so, expanding her knowledge at her leisure in preparation for future fights.

The result is a fairly straightforward style of combat that exists to support EQUINOX’s magical knowledge and abilities. Initially developed with SOLSTICE in mind, EQUINOX’s skills center around the softer side of things compared to hers, countering her force with grace and efficiency, and often retaliating with grapples and throws. EQUINOX fights fights dirty by default, striking at any vulnerable points she can, usually with electrically charged attacks, moving quickly and efficiently to do so.

Backing up this knowledge of physical martial arts is some measure of the more magically centric Almagest and Logos, which EQUINOX uses to transcend the physical and make use of purely magical attacks. EQUINOX simply wills that her opponents be struck, instantaneously and with no physical component. These cannot be responded to by normal means, instead requiring magical defenses and accurate predictions to counter them.

The Zeus Arcana: EQUINOX’s specialty and signature magic, the absolute control and manipulation of electromagnetism, the second-strongest of the fundamental interactions, which acts between charged particles. Through it, she can manipulate electricity, magnetism, and radiation, and her highly developed knowledge on physics grants her access to the other interactions as well. This provides her an immense amount of versatility and power, which she uses to its fullest.

EQUINOX’s control over electromagnetism typically shows itself in the form of electricity, which she favors, but she can easily manipulate all forms of radiation, particle and electromagnetic, from radio waves to gamma rays. To best exploit her electrical powers, EQUINOX often creates powerful storms that can raze entire planets. Her control over magnetism and particles allows her to manipulate all forms of matter on a subatomic level. EQUINOX can fire high-power particle beams, control plasma, completely dissassemble matter, and create it from scratch.

Her attacks often incorporate the full power of her magic. While the electricity EQUINOX uses in her spells may damage only her opponent’s bodies on the surface, bursting blood vessels and ripping through skin, the true damage they deal is molecular, stripping away everything that keeps atoms together if not destroying them outright. This damage is often masked by the external injuries, allowing EQUINOX to subtly, slowly destroy an opponent’s molecular structure. Of course, this is without getting into the damage it deals to one’s soul.

EQUINOX naturally perceives things across the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing her to keep track of electromagnetic phenomena and make full use of her powers. This means that she can easily read the reactions that make up minds and transmit her own thoughts as electromagnetic signals. While she dislikes doing so, EQUINOX can manipulate these electromagnetic fields as well to control the minds of others and erase their memories. Even completely halting someone’s brain functions is a simple action.
 * Heavy Weather: Central to EQUINOX’s use of her magic in combat is the manipulation of weather, usually in the form of storms. It stretches past atmospheric weather like thunderstorms and cyclones, allowing her to control the phenomena known as space weather. It is possible for EQUINOX to control storms even where there is no air by creating her own atmospheres. This control of weather can be operated over a wide scale to cause massive, destructive storms that can raze the surface of planets, or on a smaller scale for more straightforward combat applications. For example, EQUINOX can produce powerful bursts of wind and air pressure to slice through opponents, create vacuums, and alter temperatures to bring about intense extremes of hot and cold. Even the rain can be transmuted into a deluge of shredding blades. EQUINOX’s storms do not need her presence to maintain them, and will persist if she runs out of magical energy, even if she dies. In combat, EQUINOX generally creates an immense storm at the start of a fight, allowing her to control the fight’s surroundings and disorient her opponents while attacking them herself.


 * Mercurius: Through her magic, EQUINOX can break physical and magical existences down into raw electromagnetic information, reducing them to their barest concepts. Acting as her most powerful form of attack, EQUINOX typically uses this to reduce her opponents to easily absorbable energy, bit by bit, or all at once the moment she gets an opportunity. It is quite possible to break down the entirety of an opponent’s existence and absorb it, giving EQUINOX access to all of their memories and knowledge. As one of her more powerful applications, however, she can dissolve an opponent into empty static, completely erasing everything about them and reducing them only to a brief crackle of electricity. EQUINOX can use a lesser version of this on herself to convert herself into raw electromagnetic energy. In this state, she can pass through most barriers and can overwrite the bodies and souls of others with her own information, absorbing them and erasing them from existence in the process.
 * Mercury Encryption: Using Mercurius, EQUINOX can break down opponents and other objects into information and then, instead of erasing them, encrypt this information. This traps them as scrambled information that can only be returned to normal through decryption, effectively acting as an incredibly powerful seal.
 * Mercury Injection: An application of Mercurius that, rather than focus on destruction or sealing, alters information to achieve certain effects as if they were coded. It takes the form of commands, which EQUINOX writes and can insert into opponents to harm or control them as if they were programs, and it can be used to manipulate the physical world in the same way. These commands need no magic from EQUINOX to trigger, though her magic will make them easier to use on others, as once they are read by her opponent, they will be parsed by both brain and soul as their own thought, their own will, while reality parses them as natural physical operations.
 * Mercury Virus: A specific and more subtle application of Mercurius that can be delivered through any sort of attack. As long as it strikes EQUINOX’s opponent and manages to get into their body, the curse quickly starts to replicate and take effect. As it spreads, this virus converts its host into information from the inside out, disassembling their body and soul bit by bit, at an increasingly fast rate.
 * Akashic Record: EQUINOX can repurpose unused parts of the space-time continuum to backup her processing skills, effectively warping portions of space and time into supercomputers with which she can record and process information at incredibly rapid speeds. Through this technique, it is possible to compress even the largest banks of information into infinitesimally small bytes without losing any data, allowing for much, much faster processing and essentially infinite storage space. By combining this with Mercurius, EQUINOX can reduce opponents to raw information and then trap them within distant pockets of space and time - or just shunt them off into some random part of the space-time continuum.

Alchemy: A broad, widespread system of Earthling magic, ostensibly devoted to the study and manipulation of matter. Throughout Earth’s history, alchemists have been notoriously secretive about the nature of their work, but over time alchemy has only become more widespread, becoming a fairly common course in magical studies that has had most of its secrets laid bare for the world.

Alchemical spells are primarily focused through chemical equations and reactions, along with specific symbolism and cyphers. These complex encoded messages hide the truth of alchemy, its true goal. Alchemy is the pursuit of apotheosis, the elevation of the alchemist to the level of the gods. All the talk of transmutation, metals and elixirs are only red herrings, layers upon layers of symbolism that hide the true goal of absolute personal perfection. A “true” alchemist seeks to transcend their body to become an immortal magical existence that has surpassed death.

EQUINOX is a master of alchemy, which acts as her primary system of magic - unsurprising, as it was the system of magic she first ventured on, and thus acts as the foundation of all her magical advancements. The Zeus Arcana is primarily an alchemical magic, for example. She has long since reached apotheosis, transcending the need of a physical body and furnishing an immortal soul that can survive independently of any container. While this makes many of alchemy’s techniques useless, she still utilizes and retains her knowledge on it.
 * Cipher Breaker: Alchemy is a magic filled with ciphers and encrypted messages, and alchemical research makes solving these hidden messages a necessity. Combined with EQUINOX’s intense curiosity and deep yearning for greater and great knowledge, this has manifested her skill for such things in a borderline supernatural way, thanks to her inner world showing through. EQUINOX’s cryptanalysis skills allow her to quickly decode many ciphers, but it is still limited by her own intelligence, and more difficult ciphers will certainly present a large issue. However, her vast processing abilities and intelligence mean that there are few ciphers that are impossible for her - they’ll just take some time. However, Cipher Breaker’s applications are not limited to just codebreaking. She can analyze and decode spells and techniques in the same way, reaching and understanding the theory behind them and how to perform them herself. This takes time, and she cannot analyze spells that are beyond her own comprehension, as rare as they may be. She can also discern the most effective ways to respond to and deal with techniques in this way. This ability is particularly effective against barriers, as EQUINOX can find even the smallest vulnerability to exploit.

Runic Magic: One of the many branches of Earthling magic that EQUINOX studied and mastered in the years building up to her conflict with SOLSTICE, and one of her favored forms of magic. It centers around the usage of runes to achieve powerful magical effects. While these often need to be prepared beforehand, EQUINOX instead uses her runic tattoos, engraves the symbols into the air with her other magic, or burns the symbols into her opponents, rendering the preparation of runes unnecessary.

The primary use of EQUINOX’s runes is in a passive protective form. She has engraved a complex series of defensive runes into the inside of her body, acting as a constant, incredibly powerful defense, and even having offensive functions. These defenses support her Absolute Barrier, acting more actively to ensure EQUINOX’s success and deflect misfortune. Incorporating many runes, including those signifying victory, EQUINOX’s runic defenses are effectively the opposite of a curse, subtly bending the laws of causality and probability in EQUINOX’s favor.

Tao Chiao: One of the many branches of Earthling magic that EQUINOX studied and mastered in the years building up to her conflict with SOLSTICE, and one very similar to her favored system of magic, Alchemy. It refers to the religious practices and rituals associated with the philosophy of Taoism, which strays into the realm of magic and often seeks the same ends in the form of apotheosis. It is split into two main practices, waidan, or external alchemy, focusing on alchemical operations, and neidan, or internal alchemy, revolving around cultivating a healthy body and soul through meditation and breathing exercises.

EQUINOX is incredibly skilled in both forms of Tao Chiao, making use of waidan in combination with her knowledge of western alchemy to alter the world around her, while using neidan to best control, efficiently use, and preserve her own energy, particularly that of the Zeus Arcana, and maintain her immortal soul. Besides these things, she has extensive knowledge of Taoist sorcery and spells.
 * Shukuchi: A Taoist pseudo-teleportation technique that allows the user to subtly manipulate spatial relations and distance so that they can travel even great distances in a single step. While much simpler and easier to use than true teleportation, it becomes more and more imprecise the greater the distance and suffers similarly in close quarters. In the past, EQUINOX could not truly teleport and thus had to make use of transportation techniques like Shukuchi, but nowadays she can, and so the spell goes unused.

Witch of Thorns: The external manifestation of EQUINOX’s inner world, which shows itself in her every action and in her way of life. She is someone who has been shaped by experiences, and those experiences have destroyed who she once was. She still remains alive, but has been left with sharper, rougher edges, and no reservations. Her intent, her willpower - the desire to survive and succeed no matter what, and to live her own life free of interference - are always burning within her.

Every drop of EQUINOX’s magic is branded with this killing intent, a subtle imposition of death that worms its way into her opponent’s souls. Initially formed with the intent of killing SOLSTICE no matter what, it aims to counter the unconquerable desire to stay alive that those like her possess. The Absolute Barrier of someone like SOLSTICE is fast to react and adapt, and so EQUINOX’s magic adapts in turn. Simply put, for every adaptation that her opponent’s defenses undergo to better resist her magic, EQUINOX’s magic adapts to render it useless.

Resistance to electricity becomes useless as EQUINOX’s electrical attacks become something more; as with resistance to magnetic, molecular, and mental attack. Her magic never stops adapting, constantly growing in killing power, tailoring itself to best exploit every single one of her opponent’s weaknesses, sink its claws as deep into them as it can, and kill them painfully.

When EQUINOX confronted SOLSTICE on Earth, that was all this externalization of who she was could accomplish. But since then, EQUINOX has fulfilled her goals and become someone she is satisfied with being. Unlike many other mages, who constantly struggle with themselves seeking for something greater, EQUINOX is truly, finally content with who she is. And thus, the magic of her inner world will forever expand as she experiences more and more. Mercurius itself is one of these things, an application of her desire for knowledge, implemented into her magic.
 * Shattered Glass: The effects of EQUINOX’s magic increase in potency as she is injured, growing more and more powerful the worse condition she is in. She can actively invoke this magical effect in its greatest extent as a curse, reflecting all of her wounds onto her opponent to make them undergo the same pain as her. Even if her body has been completely destroyed, the curse will return the favor and inflict the same damage onto her attacker.

Arcana Drive: The existence of the witch EQUINOX, a never-ending storm cell raging deep inside her soul in the form of her inner world. It embodies her, a person that devoted herself first to vengeance, and then to magic, and never turned back. As the manifestation of everything that makes her who she is, it is inseparable from her existence, and has been formed in large part by the information she has taken from others to expand her knowledge. EQUINOX can bring it into the world as something close to a pocket dimension, and with a wrenching of space, she can drag others into it as well, forcing them to face her inside. She does not need to do so access its abilities, however; it merely sets a stage.

EQUINOX’s storm cell of an inner world acts as a complex, extremely advanced supercomputer that has spread throughout all of her soul, using heavenly technology stolen from angels she killed with Mercurius combined with her own knowledge to form an incorporeal, multidimensional computer network. It is like her own personalized variant on the Solar Drive she created so long ago, fully realized in her own hands and operating under her own conditions. It functions as a perpetual motion machine of a storm, granting EQUINOX limitless magical energy once she unlocks it without needing to be activated.

The calculation power of Arcana Drive is so immensely powerful that it can affect the outside world, fully realizing Mercurius’ control over information to alter the fundamental data of the universe when activated in earnest. It never stops processing and analyzing EQUINOX’s surroundings and opponents, passively projecting an image of possible futures gleaned from this knowledge. Its potential for data storage is effectively limitless, utilizing Akashic Record to compress information into tiny bytes for maximum efficiency. It acts as an infinite record of EQUINOX and her existence, combining her immortal soul with itself to forever fuel and remember her.

When fully manifested as a pocket dimension for the purpose of combat, the world that Arcana Drive creates is the landscape where EQUINOX defeated SOLSTICE in the past and reclaimed her life as her own. The storm that she created for that battle reappears, spanning throughout the entirety of her inner world like a spiral galaxy, and at its core lies the charred, broken Earth that it surrounded. This storm is completely under EQUINOX’s control and she can alter it in all the ways she can normally control the weather, though it is invariably violent and destructive.

While Arcana Drive normally retains the laws of physics, rewriting them using its processing power is a fairly simple action for EQUINOX. Everything within the storm besides EQUINOX and any allies that may be inside are constantly analyzed and worn down by Mercurius, which seeks to absorb all knowledge provided to it no matter what. And it is within this space that the storm’s perpetual power shows its greatest ability, altering the world and causality itself with its calculations to brush aside every possibility besides complete and utter victory for EQUINOX.

Override Sigil: An extremely advanced form of magical technique used to change the nature of reality around and within the user, allowing them to bend and break through the laws of physics. Due to their complexity, Override Sigils are incredibly difficult to create, use, and control properly, requiring detailed knowledge and a powerful will. In addition, they tend to, invariably, drain a lot of energy and stamina, making it difficult to use them for extended periods of time, even if this can be mitigated by more powerful and willful mages.
 * Relative Lightspeed: A common form of Override Sigil that is ultimately developed in some form or another by most mages as they increase in power and speed. Normally, it would be impossible for even an incredibly powerful and willful mage to break through a universal constant such as the speed of light, theoretically requiring infinite magical energy to do so. However, this Override Sigil circumvents this issue by modifying the user's inner world to change the value of c to whatever they please, raising it as they grow in speed so that they can accelerate past the universal speed limit.


 * Sigma Circuit: A powerful Override Sigil created by EQUINOX to take full advantage of the Zeus Arcana. When activated, it manifests in the form of complex magical circles on EQUINOX’s palms, completing the system of Argent Circuits for as long as it’s active. With her final circuit open, EQUINOX can manipulate the electrical conductivity and resistance of anything in range. She can easily maximize the effects of every single electrical attack, stripping away any opponent’s resistance so that she can cause as much damage as possible, while turning any material into an effective conductor. This makes her extremely dangerous regardless of range, as she can conduct her magic through effectively anything, even nothing at all, covering massive distances with singular attacks that flow through everything they touch. Combined with Mercurius, everything within this range can be converted into information after being electrocuted into oblivion. Like most Override Sigils, Sigma Circuit uses up a lot of energy, so EQUINOX makes limited, practical use of it, primarily as a finishing attack, killing opponents with a burst of irresistible electricity after wearing them down. By limiting its range, EQUINOX can lower its cost, and so she often does so, using it to amplify single attacks, such as lightning bolts or electrified punches, to greatly increase their effectiveness and make more use of it over the course of a fight.

Trivia

 * Her interests in her youth included a lot of science fiction media, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the original Alien, The Thing, and similar movies. She also roleplayed with her friends, with systems such as (or basically analogous to) Dungeons & Dragons.
 * Throughout her life - particularly after her relationship with SOLSTICE - EQUINOX has struggled with smoking and drinking issues.
 * EQUINOX's favorite Pokémon would be Abra, Espeon, Ampharos, the Joltik line, the Espurr line, the Beldum line, and Eelektross.