Lex Brando (Dropped)

A Shining Wanderer-class cutlass-like single-edged sword, created using Ancient Atlantean magical technology. It's noticeably higher-quality than most swords in her world, it can hover under Lex or Shard's control, and even has magical self-repair functions; for this reason, Lex doesn't try to hide its existence the way she hides her Shinewander Sky identity. Due to the merger, when she's not using it, she can dematerialize it into her prosthetic arm, and it does so automatically if it moves or is moved more than about ten meters away from her; damage to the sword is also painful to her. In Shinewander Sky mode, she can also fire sword-beams. The chief downside is that for unknown reasons, the blade is somewhat fragile: if she swings the sword too hard, she might damage the blade, and using Lightshard 18 thus requires a great deal of finesse.

Using the power of Lightshard 18, Lex can transform into her heroic identity of Shinewander Sky. This gives her enhanced speed and agility, enhanced strength (thus increasing the risk of damaging the sword by swinging it too hard), and the ability to glide above the ground, defying gravity for brief periods.

A misnomer, because no two Shinewander Uniforms are exactly alike, so they are not in fact uniform. The Shinewander Sky transformation includes a costume made out of a strange silk-like material which protects her from all sorts of damage; the more general term for this is "jewel coat", but the Shinewander Uniform is a cut above the rest. She isn't invulnerable by any stretch of the imagination, but a bullet would hurt considerably less, and she can get sent flying without being instantly put out of the fight. A mask covers her eyes, providing simple tactical data, allowing radio communication, and distorting her voice. Finally, it changes her hairstyle and hair color, assisting in concealing her identity. It's covered in iconography of the number 17, in order to create the illusion that Shinewander Sky is actually Shard's sister sword Lightshard 17 operating independently.

Lex's actual job is exploring through the ruins of the Atlantean Grid, registered in the Monadnock Adventurer's Guild in southeastern New Hampshire, and she is good at her job; this translates fairly well to similar situations in other worlds. She can solve the kind of puzzles needed to get through the ruins, and she has good enough spatial awareness that she can avoid getting lost in mazes. Monadnock A.G. can help her with logistics, supplies and equipment, and repairs for Lightshard 18.

By gathering a great deal of energy into Lightshard 18 and pushing herself harder than she could otherwise, Shinewander Sky can launch out a powerful X-shaped blast of light.

The Atlantean ruins occasionally have magitech monsters to fight, and even without her Shinewander transformation, she's skilled enough when wielding a sword in terms of monsters; she's a bit less skilled when it comes to dueling other sword-wielders, but she's not incompetent by any means. She also has an eye for how to defeat monsters and robots, and can figure out weak points (although it's harder for her to articulate them to other people). She has a breadth of knowledge about swords of her world (but not a depth); it's not necessarily useful from a practical standpoint, especially if she encounters a sword of an idiosyncratic design from another world, but she often has something to say.

The AI of Lightshard 18; her name is also "Lightshard 18", but she's called 'Shard' in contexts where she needs to be differentiated from the sword. She has no memory of her time before the curse, save for the fact that both she and her curse were created by the enigmatic elven terrorist organization known as the Dawnfall. And don't let her cool-headed and formal tone fool you -- if anything, she's even more of a thrillseeker than Lex, and is a total enabler for Lex's less-than-rule-abiding behavior. With repairs and upgrades which are currently uncertain, she might be able to operate independently, or at least move independently, and perhaps even impersonate Shinewander Sky if Lex needs to be seen as a separate individual, but for now, she's stuck as just a sword.

As a result of her partial merger with Lightshard 18, Lex lost her left arm and leg. Using the sword's repair capabilities, she can conjure up prosthetic replacements which function more-or-less identically to the real thing; however, they don't provide any material benefit that she didn't have originally, and even worse, they constantly drain Lex's magical energy. She has to dematerialize them while she's sleeping, it's hard for her to wake up and get out of bed, and she's groggy all the time regardless when she isn't being Shinewander Sky.

The exact nature of the curse isn't entirely clear; the warrior of Dawnfall who showed up to taunt people about it didn't say much. However, it is known that it is somehow similar to or connected to the virus which caused the Atlantean Catastrophe. Under certain circumstances, such as Lex losing control of negative emotions or falling into despair, it takes over Lex and Shard, making them evil and possibly even incapable of speech, and occasionally manifesting wings of light which vary in size depending on how much it controls her; the influence of negative emotions is demonstrably two-way, and it might make her lose control of negative emotions if the curse activates for other reasons. When the curse is active, they would have roughly the same level of capability as Shinewander Sky, but unless she was already transformed, she would lack most of the defensive capability of the Shinewander Uniform.

Lex is selfless, occasionally to the point of neglecting her own needs, but especially to the point of neglecting her own safety. If people around her need help, and it's something Shinewander Sky (or even just Lex) can help with, she'll throw herself into the situation with reckless abandon, and Shard is a complete enabler for this behavior. If someone attacked Lex and she hurt them in the process of fighting them off, she'd actually feel worried about them, even if she was hurt even worse in the exchange.

On the other hand, in situations where which she doesn't have anyone to save, she might not be able to handle the pressure, and might even have almost cowardly reactions. She's also somewhat shy, and has trouble interacting with people she isn't familiar with.

Lex has a sort of friction when it comes to authority and rules. She has an instinctive distrust of unilateral rules or "just the way things are", which is at least partly a result of being transgender, and she insists on acting casually towards royalty and nobility, or at least approaching them as if they were on equal terms. On the other hand, she cares deeply about other people, and particularly loathes bullying or taking advantage of others, and she has a sense of fair play which revolves around results. She's totally okay with pirating music and Hollywood blockbusters. The upshot is that she doesn't care about any rules that aren't reasonable guidelines for safety or game-rules and suchlike, and she'll do whatever she thinks will have a good outcome even if they aren't "honorable" or "law-abiding" or anything like that. Shard, again, is a total enabler for this sort of behavior.