Phrygian

Phrygian
Basic Information
Pronouns	they/them
Aliases	Deck 7
People	Branched
Connections
Af­fil­i­a­tion(s)	The Branched Millennium Break The Society of Banners and Bright Returns Blue Channel
Meta Info
Season	PARTIZAN PALISADE
Playbook	The Transformed (Beam Saber) The Miscreated (Armour Astir)
Player	Keith J Carberry

Phrygian is a Branched scientist and a player character in PARTIZAN and PALISADE.

Appearance

Envoy Form

Their envoy form for interacting with non-Branched people is made of writhing wires forming an "altogether convincing" humanoid figure.

During the masquerade party, they wear a ruffled shirt (like Jerry Seinfeld's ruffled shirt in Seinfeld but even more ruffled) and black jeans with a belt. As a mask, they have grown their face wires into something like commemorative New Year's plastic glasses, which spell out "Phrygian" with each letter shaped like their own body. At one point, they grow out a hand from one of these bodies and use it to shake hands. When they're surprised at the masquerade, all of the little Phrygians blink in a row.

War Forms

Their first war form, Diminished, is a worm-like humanoid mech with cables gaining and losing tension and snapping into place as it moves. Keith references art by Benoit Godde.

Their second war form, Gab or [the sound of G over a♭] is an almost loosened version of the previous form, its cables slack and wobbling. During PALISADE, they have a viridian "sac" for their Buccal Outpocket, a sniper rifle equivalent powered by air similar to that of Ikalgo from Hunter x Hunter.

Other Forms

Phrygian's true form is the haunted Deck 7 and the inky, billowing ghost wandering it.

In PALISADE, during downtime, they can become a bedroom for the crew of the Blue Channel to use for whatever they'd like. The room has a modest library (whose books change according to Phrygian's mood) and a breakfast nook. They have a journal on one shelf that can relay their thoughts, but they can also open any orifice in the room to speak, like in The Brave Little Toaster. After they become a carnival to lift spirits in Joyous Guard, the breakfast nook has a shelf with a milk bottle plushie and a few other carnival trinkets.

The bedroom is not the only way in which they become part of the Blue Channel's layout: in their therapy session with Saffron Septet, they are the therapy sofa. (Their face is still visible, but on the side of the sofa.)

In "An Impossible Ideal" they instrumentalize the form of the deepest, darkest, coldest part of space, "the space in between galaxies, furthest away from light or heat," in order to protect their crewmates from the heat of the sun.

Personality

Phrygian is a scientist who has been forced to fight a war, and they approach the world as such. Their first priority is always to try to help the Branched by opposing the Divine Principality. They don't care about the liberation of the people in Principality space or the occupation of Palisade; they fight for Millennium Break and the Cause because of the common goal of fighting the Principality. On occasions when they do (temporarily) prioritize their friends in Millennium Break over their self-imposed mission, they feel guilty.

They are a fan of mediocre comedy movies. Because Branched culture is so different from that of the Divine Principality and other adjacent civilizations, the basic tropes and cliches of movies and other stories from Principality space work extremely well on Phrygian: they haven't built up any defenses to them.

Drive (Beam Saber)

• Deal a lasting blow in the war against the Principality.

Hooks (Armour Astir)

• Figure is precarious; however they steady themself, it must be on the side of Millennium Break.
• Success for Millennium Break means a reprieve for my home.
• I am a scientist who is meant to be researching a god, but instead I am fighting a war, which is a worse job.

Burden (Armour Astir)

• War-Weary

History and Involvement

PARTIZAN

Phrygian is a member of the Branched who arrived on Partizan with a team of undercover researchers, seeking to understand the God preached about by Gur Sevraq. While investigating, they and their team were captured and experimented on by Stel Apostolos and the Pact of Necessary Venture. Phrygian and Corrasion are the only remaining members of their team.

PALISADE

Spoiler warning! This section contains major spoilers for PALISADE. Tread carefully!

Phrygian fights for the Cause as a member of the Blue Channel's crew.

Brnine, as the captain, frequently picks Phrygian as backup for their side missions, like Phrygian is their de facto first mate or bestie. In one such side-mission, they attend a masquerade on the Isle of the Broken Key. They're unable to have a good time, because the spy "Em" attachs himself to them almost immediately after they arrive. Because of this, Phrygian is interrogated on suspicion of being a spy themself before the party ends.

They encounter Em again on the next mission, where the crew is investigating Violet Cove on the Isle of the Broken Key. This time Phrygian arrests them.

After a failed attempt to convince a conscripted Kesh prisoner, Free Fidelity, to stop fighting for Kesh and let Phrygian free them, Phrygian becomes war-weary. They seek out therapy with Saffron Septet to try to begin addressing it. In the therapy session, they articulate that they think it's their job to stop the war between the Principality and the Branched, and that they gave themself that job—it was not externally imposed. They also struggle to reconcile their knowledge that Stargrave Elcessor detonating the Stellar Combustor would be obviously bad with the fact that, in the grand scheme of things, it would be good for the Branched, because the massive collateral damage would affect the Principality. Saffron encourages them to start re-conceptualizing their goals, starting not with their ten-thousand-year plan but with more immediate ones.

Following Stargrave Elcessor's ultimatum—that she will detonate the Stellar Combustor unless the leaders of the Cause turn themselves in to the Bilateral Intercession—Phrygian argues that the Blue Channel crew should go to the Stellar Combustor and disarm it. They, Brnine, and Routine go on a stealth mission to Combustor to do so. They encounter Cor'rina Corrine and Misericorde on the Combustor and, with their help, find a machine up to which an Elect of the Divine Authority is connected. The Elect is a failsafe: if someone communicates to them via cybernetic hookup and tells them to detonate the Combustor, they will detonate it, even if the Stargrave has not pressed the button.

With assistance from Aspesis, Phrygian hooks up to the machine, replacing the Elect and permanently disarming all Stellar Combustors in the galaxy by making Authority think they've already detonated. They have found a ten-thousand-year plan to commit to. They tell Brnine not to let Cor'rina and Misericorde take credit for disarming the Combustor, and in their final move as a PC, they draw a Millennium Break symbol and a message across the sky:

“

BORN TO DIE
PALISADE IS A FUCK
Kill 'em all 1429
I am Branched man
410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS”

Relationships

Beliefs (Beam Saber)

• Broun: My allies have been killed by their weapon designs.
• Kalar seems dedicated to their work, and Millennium Break.
• Millie started as I ended up: an Apostolosian experiment.
• Kalar is new to this crew like I am new to this crew and we'll either fit in or fit out together.
• Sovereign Immunity is a hero against the Principality.
• Figure helped save the people in Millennium Break, and would help us again if we need it.

Gravity clocks (Armour Astir)

• Figure's acts of contrition will control them until the Witch is gone.
• Own self be clock.

Abilities

Beam Saber

• Phrygian takes one stress to transform into their secondary form, Diminished.
  • Quirks: Segmented Heap, Extreme Tension, Terrifying, Frayed Cables
• Secret Move: Phrygian can spend special armor to push themself in combat or to manifest the traits of an object they're touching.
• Metamorphosis:
• Blurring the Line: Phrygian may push themself to transform into pilot-scale gear.

Armour Astir

• The Beast Within: In War Form, Phrygian can fly and turn invisible. They can also spend hold and take a Risk to Strike Decisively against someone who isn't undefended, and spend hold to permanently change their Approach once.
  • We the People: When Phrygian is the Beast Within, instead of their War Form, they may alternatively transform into a small gang of Tier 2 Ardents.
• Caustic Breath:
• Shifting Self: (B-Plot Move) At the beginning of a Sortie, Phrygian can take on the form of someone with whom they're closely familiar.
• Once the War's Over: (Soldier Move) After talking about what's waiting for them after the war is over, Phrygian can spend hold to automatically succeed on up to three rolls. They will then perish before the next Downtime.

Trivia

• Phrygian mode is the name of various musical modes.
• A diminished interval is a type of modification to a musical interval.
• G over a♭ is a minor second interval (among other possible realizations).

Gallery

• 

  Phrygian fanart by Si F Sweetman

• 

  Pinup art of Phrygian by QueenOfTheAnts

• 

  Phrygian and their PALISADE colleagues by Vlasdygoth

• 

  Fanart of Phrygian and Brnine by SeamonsterArt