Mist

WARNING: MINOR MENTION OF SA

Appearance

Mist is a demon with pure white hair and skin. Their eyes have a dark pink sclera with light pink pupils that are misshapen. She can usually be seen with a tired expression but is always smiling. They have light pink horns that resemble stag beetle mandibles that point up and back. Her hair is extremely long and is tied into segmented ponytails with neon pink hair ties that hang down and reconnect in the middle, making her hair a hoop. Due to her difficult-to-control ability to produce mist from her mouth, she wears a mask. When phighting, she wears a mask with tubes that connect to a canister on her back. The canister is about the size of her torso and collects the mist, which can then be sprayed around the area with the attached hose. The front of her mask has Blackrock's symbol on it, upside down. Despite her unsettling eyes, she is considered pretty without her mask. At her job as a psychiatrist, she lacks her mask and wears formal clothing in the form of a collared shirt with short sleeves, a pencil skirt, black stockings, and black kitten heels. Her ponytails are also unconnected. When in her lab or phighting, she wears an altered Blackrock uniform and her left hand was replaced with a prosthetic after it was sliced off. 

Gear and Abilities

Mist's gear is a gas canister that she wears on her back. Her mask has tubes that connect to it so it collects the mist she breathes out. Her mist is a transparent light pink that gets more opaque the more concentrated it gets. Her passive involves steadily timing her primary; her primary involves spritzing gas clouds. Doing this at a steady pace will yield larger gas clouds which will slow opponents down. Her secondary will allow Mist to raise her hose and blast a cloud of gas straight at an opponent. If it successfully hits an opponent, she will regain 10 shield but if she misses and it collides with an object, it will leave a small cloud that will disappear after 3 seconds. Her Q ability leaves a trail of her gas behind her to boost her speed for 4 seconds, but it will be less concentrated. When there is enough gas built up, she can do her E ability. Mist will spray the concentrated gas around in a wider area, which leaves behind clouds that lay close to the ground. When opponents hang around the gas, they slow down and will steadily lose their shield. Allies who hang around the gas will slowly regain low shield. Mist's phinisher will surround Mist with gas and enemies in range will be gently pulled in toward her for 8 seconds and be unable to walk away. During her phinisher, opponents' shields will quickly deteriorate and leave them vulnerable to attacks from Mist's allies. Mist is similar to Boombox in that she has to time her passive to boost her primary and she can restore allies' shield but is similar to Subspace in that she can do area denial with her gas making the area dangerous to stick around. She is most useful during Conquer but must hang around a Boombox as she is very susceptible to long-range opponents. When being used in Annihilate, it's best to stick around allies in tight spaces to force opponents into difficult-to-escape positions.

In lore, her mist works as a mind-numbing gas that will cause victims to enter a semi-conscious state in which they will listen to almost anything Mist says. When Mist doesn't give a command, they will simply sit and wait. During her phinisher, she tells any opponents caught in the gas to gather to her so they are easier to get attacked by her allies. She typically uses her mist to make her victims fall asleep, as she can speak to them while they dream to manipulate their thoughts and find the root of their troubles. Depending on how much gas a victim inhales, they can be numbed for a few seconds, all the way up to 5 minutes. In cases where the gas isn't enough, she can instead use her saliva which is 10 times stronger. She typically gets her victims to unknowingly ingest it through coffee or tea she made. All she has to do is lick the spoon before stirring. A few sips of the drink will make the victim numb for 5 minutes while something like a full-on kiss to the mouth will last half an hour. She does the drink technique the most as it gives her just enough time to work. When they wake up, they can't remember what happened but they usually feel better and Mist gaslights them into thinking they just took a little nap while she worked. While working at her job as a psychiatrist, she can hold in her gas by keeping her mouth dehydrated and by lightly coughing into a napkin when she needs to breathe. She takes the time to breathe while her patient is asleep. She can hold it in for up to an hour but the moment she reaches her breaking point and finally lets it out, she gets a bad nosebleed and uncontrollably over-salivates to the point of looking like she's crying out of her mouth. She used to be able to control her mist freely until an ex-friend from her past hurt her past the point of a full recovery.

NOTE: While under the gas' effect, Mist would NEVER make a patient/victim do anything that could be categorized as SA, and has NEVER kissed anyone non-consensually. The only time she ever made physical contact with a patient while under the effect was a hug after disclosing past trauma. She is a victim of SA herself. She's crazy and evil, but she's not a monster. 

Personality

Core Traits: Unethical, Persuasive, Positive

Mist is uncomfortably friendly. Despite how dangerous the world is, she is sure everything can be solved with a positive attitude and never seems to get upset unless it's to be sympathetic to her patients as a psychiatrist. She could be right next to the most dangerous person in the world and still be like :> despite knowing everything. Mist could narrowly escape death, grin, and say "Nice one, but maybe next time!" She avoids laying hands on someone unless it's to defend herself or her allies. She regularly performs unethical acts to "help" others. A common tactic she uses to calm her patients down and make them easier to work with is offering them a drink that was made with her concentrated mist (aka her saliva.) Of course, this is extremely wrong on so many levels and she acknowledges it but "if it works, it works" and since it isn't physically harming her patient, she doesn't plan on stopping. Mist has infinite patience when working with others and tolerates way too much from people. The only time she gets upset is when she holds in her mist for too long and accidentally reaches her breaking point in front of someone and has to run away. She doesn't get upset at the person who took up her time though, she gets upset at herself. Despite her outward kindness, she is still aligned as evil as she looks past her associate's awful deeds and does pretty bad things too with the mindset that she is being helpful. She's an incredible psychiatrist but when working at Blackrock, she is scary. She is a little delusional. The only person she considers an enemy is an ex-friend from her past, Sword, and Medkit.

Background

Most of Mist's background is shrouded in mystery and she never talks about her past. She sort of just showed up in Crossroads one day and needed help with her gear as it was damaged and wasn't doing a great job at collecting her gas anymore. After asking around and finding out that Blackrock is the most technologically advanced faction, she headed towards there. She heard from a few others to watch out for a "Subspace" but ignored it and instead did the opposite, making finding Subspace her 2nd goal. Once she made it to Blackrock, she actively started asking for the lead scientist to make sure that her mask would be fixed perfectly and maybe improved upon. Just her luck, she met Subspace and her first thought was "Oh man, this guy is so messed up, I like it." She immediately started to charm it up by inflating his ego and pointing out his mask and she'd like hers to be as useful. Except, instead of keeping the gas out, she wants it to be kept in. She used reverse psychology on Subspace to make him want to fix the mask and it worked. She made him let her watch the whole process and spent a lot of time staring at him in fascination. Even though it hadn't even been a few days, Mist took a liking to Blackrock due to the inventions being made and joined the faction. She believed she could invent things too but for the good of demonkind. Considering she already had a degree in psychology and seeing how messed up everyone was, she set up an office for herself and advertised everywhere, occasionally approaching strangers in public after psychoanalyzing from a distance. She did it all with an innocent demeanor and presented herself as casual and non-threatening, so no one could have guessed she was associated with Blackrock and was mentally unwell. She met Vine Staff after hanging around Slingshot's cafe and took an interest in her arm and liked her friendly demeanor despite being cursed. Vine Staff reminded Mist of themself and quickly acquainted themselves with her in hopes of being friends. When in phights, Vine Staff is the only person, aside from Subspace, they will apologize to after defeating her.

One day, when Medkit and Subspace, unfortunately, got into a fight with Sword and Mist by their sides. Mist tried to get Subspace to let it go but before she could use her gear to calm him down, a battle ensued with Mist hanging around the sidelines and avoiding getting too close to Sword. She wanted to try to subdue both Medkit and Sword early on with her gas since she and Subspace were not equipped to handle them alone (like, they're both supports) but couldn't get close enough without putting herself in danger. Eventually, Medkit got too close with his pistol and to stop Subspace from getting shot point blank, she got close and pointed her gear in Medkit's face to deliver a puff of numbing gas to get it over with, but reacting just as quickly, Sword came in and swung at Mist's arm, cutting both the hose and her hand off. With the hose cut, all the gas released into the area and knocked out Medkit and Sword. Subspace, due to his mask, was spared but still had to leave the area before it was too much to handle. For the first time in years, Mist was enraged and wanted to kill Sword where he lay but had to focus on her lost hand first and made Subspace help her abscond. If it was her right hand, she wouldn't have minded as much but since she is left-handed for everything (eating, writing, using her gear) she was pissed. She was happy to get a prosthetic made by Subspace but was still upset she had to get one in the first place. After not having one for years, Sword was now her #1 enemy and Medkit was #2 by proxy and for almost shooting Subspace in the face. Regardless, she continues to speak in a cheerful tone and even teases that her prosthetic hand is a major improvement.

Relationships

Subspace - Friend???: Mist considers Subspace a friend but it is likely one-sided. They are both interested in each other's ability and their off-putting personalities make them an interesting pair. Even though Subspace is evil-incarnate, since he is intelligent and was the one to improve her mask and later make her a prosthetic hand, Mist considers him a good friend. She also uses Subspace as a case study and enjoys observing his deteriorating physical and mental state. She has used her mist and psychological manipulation on him several times and thinks she is helping him. While everyone around him is unsettled, she follows him around with a smile and wants to see him happy, even if it's awful things that make him happy.

Vine Staff - Friend: Mist is friends with Vine Staff but hides his close association with Subspace from her to not scare her away. He was interested in her arm and how she was able to come to terms with it when most people would've gone crazy. He thinks her relationship with Shuriken and Slingshot is cute and he praises her healing ability. Mist likes how friendly and caring she is while also being a bit of a dork and when she is an ally on their time, he will thank her during assists. Sometimes, Mist goes to Slingshot's cafe just to see Vine Staff. Since Subspace rarely comes to Crossroads, it's the only place they hang out together. Mist will never go to Vinestaff's apartment as he is sure that he would scare Slingshot and Shuriken for being a member of Blackrock and then Vine Staff won't like him anymore. Also, he thinks Vine Staff is pretty and he likes tall women.

Sword - Enemy: Mist hates Sword for cutting off her hand. She thinks he overreacted as the gas she was going to spritz into Medkit's face wasn't going to hurt him and instead of just pushing him out the way or something, he sliced off her hand. It ended up being for nothing since he also cut the hose of her gear and made both him and Medkit pass out while Subspace and her got away. She doesn't care that he's the child of a deity, she thinks he's a moron that acts faster than he can think. She'll never outwardly attack him but when exchanging banter as allies during phights, she will be sarcastic but speak in a joyful tone and deny having any lingering hostility, confusing everyone.

Medkit - Enemy: Mist doesn't like Medkit due to his association with Sword and his negative relationship with Subspace and Blackrock but doesn't hate him as much as she hates Sword. She thinks Subspace taking his eye and Sword taking her hand is a huge imbalance and is totally unfair. She wants to make him understand she wasn't going to hurt him and she was just trying to stop the fight harmlessly but then she looks at her prosthetic hand and changes her mind. She never even needed to properly psychoanalyze him, she could read the trauma all over his face (not just the eye). If he was a patient of hers and they'd be able to properly speak, there's a good chance that they could make up but the likelihood of Medkit trying to get therapy is basically 0 so Mist will continue to wear a mask of silliness while saying mean things about his past and current relationships.

Speed - Past Patient: Before Speed joined the True Eye cult, she used to be one of Mist's patients. They were able to trace all her trauma back to the day of the accident involving Subspace and while this should've turned Mist against Subspace, they ignored it and focused on helping Speed recover. Like usual, they hid the fact that they're a Blackrock scientist and a close associate of Subspace because despite Mist completely separating her two careers and leaving her relations with others out of her work, Speed would not be able to look past their relationship with him. Mist made good progress with Speed but despite their effort, couldn't help her drop the desire to get revenge against Subspace as it had become carved into her core. Using her mist and speaking to Speed while she slept, they were able to find out more about her past and give her the information they got once she woke up. A lot of it wasn't good but it was something. After Speed joined the True Eye cult, they stopped going to therapy and ended up finding out about Mist's other occupation. She was uncomfortable but was impressed by how serious they were about keeping their jobs and relationships separated so she didn't hold anything against Mist for keeping it a secret. As allies during phights, Mist would ask how she has been doing and show concern for her wellbeing. When on different teams, Mist and Speed apologize to each other after defeats and they both promise they're not doing it due to their relationships with their factions. They have a positive-leaning relationship but since their greatest enemies are also their associates, they avoid each other.

Trivia

• She ended up in the Crossroads area after running away from her ex-friend
• She was in an abusive relationship with her ex-friend
• She loved to knit but after losing her hand, she stopped despite Subspace saying the prosthetic could still let her
• Mist likes to poke Subspace's face with her nub after it healed
• When she gets too into her studies, she drools a lot
• Her pronouns change depending on who she is with (if with someone who uses she/her, Mist uses he/him or they/them and vice versa)
• Despite Blackrock having extreme conflict with Playground, she doesn't care and is nice to Boombox and Skateboard
• Boombox avoids her because he can see past her friendly demeanor and claims he gets "bad vibes" from her
• Dry ass skin
• While she can use her mist on Subspace since she can convince him to take off his mask, she has never been able to do it with Hyperlaser and she has never seen him without his helmet. In-game, this would be ignored since Hyperlaser would be unfairly immune to Mist's ability
• If she could get revenge against Medkit, she'd cut off a chunk of his hair and make it ugly
• She can't eat things with certain textures or else she throws up
• The air she breathes out of her nose is normal, but if she were to only breathe out of her nose to avoid using her ability, her mouth would quickly over-salivate
• Her gums and nostrils burn when she holds in her mist for too long
• Her first thought at meeting Katana and Ban Hammer was "HE'S HUGE"
• She wants to be Katana's therapist but like Medkit, there's no way he'd go to therapy
• She takes great pride in her hair and refuses to cut it
• If someone was able to lift her high, they could hook her onto something like a coat with her hair
• The glasses she wears at her psychiatrist job have no prescription, she wears them to look professional
• It takes her half an hour to do her hair
• She paid Subspace for a Biograft whose only job is to carry her around when she's bored
• Her ex-friend is the only person who can make her shake with fear
• She has tricked patients into taking their medication by hiding it in chocolate
• Her prosthetic arm is strong enough to crush someone's whole hand but will never do that
• She once wedgied Subspace to see how he'd react. He wasn't pleased
• Her mask makes her immune to the effects of breathing in Subspace's poison, but like Hyperlaser, in-game it would be ignored to not make it unfair
• She usually keeps her mask off around Subspace when he's wearing his
• Subspace has a higher tolerance than most to her mist so he can last a good while around her when they're both maskless but when she gets really close to his face, he won't last as long
• Even though she doesn't need to, she loves to eat. Her favorite food is extra chocolate ice cream
• The inside of her mouth has permanent damage from acid burns but she can still taste extremely sweet things
• She does her best to take care of her teeth but her molars are rotting
• A minor side effect of her mist is that she lost most of her ability to smell things but she can still smell strong things like perfume, smoke, and people who haven't showered
• If Subspace smells bad (which he probably does), she will beg him to shower or something
• She is the kind of person to cling to the ceiling in the dark to scare someone for fun
• She once scared Subspace by hiding under a desk and grabbing his ankles when he got too close
• If she had a voice, she'd sound like Karl Hadrika when voicing Becky Prim
• Despite being 2 inches taller than Subspace, when around him she buckles her knees to be the same height
• She is hypermobile and can dislocate her joints and jaw
• Her favorite music genre is Alternative Rock
• She wears clothes that cover most of her body as her back and chest are covered in scar tissue from acid burns
• If she was ever kidnapped and knew no one was coming for her, she wouldn't hesitate to off herself
• She was originally planned to be 5'9" but was changed to be 6'0"