Sleuth.EXE

Name: Sleuth.EXE

Gender: Female

Element: Normal

Subtype: Cursor

Appearance: Sleuth has been described as a "handsome woman" by many of her former employers; she stands at about 6'0" and has both athletic limberness, practiced flexibility, and an elegant posture. Her hair is light brown, cut boyishly short so that it extends just to the nape of her neck. Her eyes are dark brown and piercing, complimented by the always alert arch of her eyebrows. Unlike Jocelyn, she does look as though she wears makeup, but like Jocelyn, she has incredible, almost overblown womanly measurements. Hers, however, are usually tactfully hidden behind the layers of her wardrobe.

On that note, her wardrobe consists of a light brown deerskin hunting cap, as well as an Inverness travelling coat of similar make. Both are pattered with beige plaid, giving her the look of another well-known detective. The coat's cape falls around the shoulders, even in the front, and stops just below the thighs. The clasp in the front crosses her navi emblem, a light brown and silver handheld magnifying glass, with the emblem being embedded into the brown vest beneath her jacket. Beneath all of this coat, she wears a dark brown navisuit, which is designed not to be terribly snug, but is regardless thanks to the shape of her body. Additionally, she wears brown leather short boots and gloves of a similar make to her coat, but not of the same pattern.

She often travels with a cane, which she uses to make dramatic gestures and can fight with in a pinch. At the top of the cane sits a silver magnifying glass head, which is clearly far too large to be of any use by itself. Its design, however, actually allows advanced scoping features that the simplicity does not suggest, permitting her to inspect items on the net in detail that many others couldn't imagine. If she must engage in gunplay, she uses a compact, silver revolver, but she finds it boring compared to many of her other options.

Personality: Sleuth is the opposite of Jocelyn; her primary traits her inquisitiveness and defiance. She (generally) believes in right but always seems to find that everyone else is doing it wrong, so to speak, and tends to treat people in a peculiar way: the more ordinary they are, the more incompetent she believes them. To Sleuth, the ultimate joy is solving puzzles and mysteries, and as such, she treats people, places, and situations as more worthwhile if they are more difficult to figure out. She can be obstinate and provocative towards others and likes to try to coax the weirdest behaviors she can out of them. She's been known to meet close friends in disguise, just to rattle them unexpectedly and see how they react.

While Sleuth is renowned for several successes, the fact that she uses "deduction" to reason out her mysteries is misleading. In fact, she uses "abduction," starting from a small detail and working downward to draw very broad conjectures. For this reason, another of her necessary traits is persistence, as anything she does correctly often follows is often preceded by a series of incorrect, wacky, and sometimes unthinkable theories.

Cockiness is a flaw of hers that comes out fairly often, even amongst her friends and those she respects. Besides mystery-solving, she maintains a host of other hobbies and interests, including scientific studies, gambling, marksmanship, boxing, costuming, and (at one time) halucogenic drugs. Her curiosity can lead her to questionable decisions at times and is the driving motivation behind all that she does. She tends to become uncharacteristically morose in the face of boredom, but rarely allows herself to become bored. She is fairly haughty when it comes to matters of romance, but also interested and even, rumor has it, experienced. Again, it seems to be one of those areas where she loves to tease interesting behavior out of people and experiment with new things...

Background: Sleuth worked as a private investigator for several years under many operators who hired her, gaining much acclaim and also making many enemies. Still, her reputation made her ideal for Lord Yard, who supposed that tremendous cynicism and a dabbling in criminal justice would make her a fair accompaniment to his clueless daughter. Currently, her greatest enemy is boredom, since few real threats have presented themselves to the pair. She is often irritated by Jocelyn, who smiles vacantly at her keen insights and giggles at her veiled jabs.

While her battle competence is fairly high, the tools she retains to fight with are sparse, since she never carries over anything after a job. She absolutely loathes fighting viruses alone, as, regardless of whatever else one thinks about them, they rarely yield any additional tidbits to sate her curiosity or leads to pursue out of interest once they are defeated. She is disliked by most factions for various reasons: she tends to insult the NetPolice and tends to aid in thwarting the NetMafia.

One of Sleuth's ongoing self-appointed cases is discovering the whereabouts of Scarlett Yard, who vanished years ago from the Yard estate. Amusingly, she seems to care far more about it than does Jocelyn; the poor girl simply thinks that her sister must be doing well for herself out there and have had a very good reason for leaving. Unfortunately, Sleuth has found few leads.

Custom Weapon: A silver, short revolver serves as Sleuth's backup when no amount of intellectual persistence or amusing tactical experimentation will act as a substitute to old-fashioned digital bullets.

Starting Set: HP +50, Airshot1

Sig Attacks (60/60):

Name: Elementary Counterattack
Effect: Trap(Attack targeting Sleuth): Dodge then 20 damage melee to attacker
Description: Sleuth dances nimbly around an attack and returns a blow with her magnifier/cane's butt, dealing light damage. The primary use is to rouse the anger of the attacker. It's elementary!

Sleuth's Crosses:

HydeCross (Level 2)

Element: Aqua

Subtype: Recovery

Appearance: In this cross, Sleuth's brown deerstalker cap is swapped out for a dark purple bowler hat with a rounded top. The riding cape she wears over her coat is changed out for a full-length silk cape of matching color. It is clasped by the same silver chain with a plate at its center that she normally wears. Her coat adopts a similar purple color, lighter than her typical with a tighter fit. It is buttonless, designed to stay open rather than shut in the center, and holds a hidden flask inside the chest of the coat. A red, leather chest-holster for her pistol is added, circling beneath the breasts with the gun hanging on the right beneath the coat, and X-shaped straps on the back. Beneath that, she wears a vest similar to her original, but in black, ending above her belly. She still wears black gloves, but they are now shorter and shiny black.

Sleuth's tan bodysuit, which includes the slacks, is mostly changed out, replaced by long, black trousers matching the fabric of the vest. Like the vest, they don't cover as much as they should, staying partially unbuttoned at the waist despite the red belt. Her shoes are more or less the same, but in black. If the slacks legs are pulled up, one will find that she wears black, wool stockings as well, which are held up the leg by red, leather bands near the knees, with unfashionable gartners connecting them.

Sleuth's gun is swapped out for a slightly older model, with a black, wooden grip and a shorter silver barrel. Her cane loses its lens head and is swapped out for a gleaming black one. The head is usually covered by her fist, but when the hand is put aside, a silver dog head is revealed at the tip. The eyes of the dog appear to be shining, even though they are simple black indentations. 

Her alcoholism tends to flair up a little worse in this cross.

Buster: Fires a bullet from her antique pistol.

Charge Shot: Performs a hearty golf-swing with her dog-headed cane.

Signature Attack(s):

(160/160)

Indubitable Inebriation (80) - Sleuth takes a quick swig from her flask and gets punch drunk. If the situation calls for camaraderie, she can share the fun instead. She seems to have an inexhaustible supply of said flasks and can bring out another if she needs it.
- 15 HP recovery
- Passive

Indubitable Re-nebriation (80) - Sleuth drinks even more from her flask, or passes it around to spread her bad habits to others. She's really letting herself go.
- 15 HP recovery
- Passive