Verity Gaines

Verity Gaines
Played by:	Bokkunthechoa
Appearances:	Hell is Suite Hell is Suite 2 Hell is Suite 3 (Mention) Gaines Game (Mention)
Debut:	Hell is Suite (2018)
Full Name:	Verity Alysson Gaines
Sex:	Female
Age:	21 (HiS, GG1) 22 (HiS2) 31 (HiS3)
Height:	5'7" (170 cm)
Weight:	125 lb. / 56.8 kg (HiS, HiS2) 135 lb. / 61 kg. (HiS3)
Birthday:	November 7th, 2203

Verity Gaines was the first Gaines to ever grace Sad Otters. She's a rich girl with a harsh tongue and a big ego. Behind her bluster though, she's a coward who relies heavily on others, but genuinely cares about the friends she keeps close. Despite her abrasive personality, she's honestly a nice person.

Background

Verity is the daughter of Frederick and Patricia Gaines. Frederick is a black sheep among Gaines, being the only member of the family to ever be disowned. The reason for this is that he was caught stealing technology from his own father, Archibald. Unbeknownst to anyone before GG1, he was encouraged to do so by his sister Erica, and ratted out by said sister. Disowned and disgraced, Frederick went on his own path to acquire a fortune.

Verity as a kid

Verity's childhood wasn't amazing. She was working under her father from a young age, forced to learn the ropes of managing a business so that she could one day take the reigns. Her parents were strict, and mistakes would be met with discipline. When her esper abilities started developing, Verity kept them to herself. The conditions Verity was raised in caught up with her eventually, all coming to a head on a single night. While her father was away on a business trip, Verity made a mistake in bookkeeping for his company. Her mother found out about it. The two got into an argument, which culminated in Patricia slapping her daughter in the face over a rude comment. In the rage and hatred Verity felt for her mother, she'd unintentionally discovered her Puppetry skill. Before Verity knew it, her mother had leapt out the window, the fall killing her. At fifteen, Verity had killed her mother.

The event stuck with Verity. Even though the death was ruled a suicide, as there was nothing to suggest Verity's involvement, she became tight-lipped about her powers from then on out.

Before HiS, Verity received a life sentence for selling weapons to both the Renegades of Revolution and Worldly Enterprises. She'd learned a lot from her parents, and unfortunately their shady morals had rubbed off on her. Frederick never made any attempt to have her released, sparing no effort for his own daughter. Even if her efforts were to support the family business, her arrest had made her a useless partner. Ever the self-interested, he saw no reason to help her.

Hell Hotel: This Ain't Suite!

Verity Gottem

"Great idea. Let's drink to escape our troubles. No way of knowing that was a terrible idea. If only this thing known as foresight existed, then this whole mess could have been avoided."

"What the hell is with this place and amnesia? Between the bots and anterograde in the lobby, I'm starting to think 626 has got a fetish for it or something."

"Yes, Puckley. Germans were high quality anime trash. Storm Troopers was actually named after a Durarara regime."

At the start of the first Hell is Suite, Verity was kind of a major bitch. She racked up enemies quickly, getting paired with some punk lesbian bitch she hated and quickly finding new depths of hatred for the demon of annoyance that was Faye Puckley.

After a rough first challenge though, Verity and Sparky end up forming a bond of trust. Their bond was formed through fighting alongside one another, and seemed unbreakable. Consequently, her relationship with Faye seemed to sour further, the small girl blaming Verity for Todd's death. It seemed inevitable that conflict between the two would take place.

The second challenge didn't allow for such though, pitting Verity against Kalei instead. A string of good rolls on the latter's part made it clear that Verity had no chance of surviving, so she forfeited. She was confident she and Sparky could beat Lars 2v1 in another duel to the death. Unfortunately, Verity was injured from the battle with Kalei, and Faye shot Sparky to give Lars a better chance of beating her. They had to use their health items at the battle's start just to stand a chance, but it wasn't enough. Lars landed a good hit and knocked out Sparky.

Verity didn't let go of her friend when she was brought to the execution grounds. A rock concert with a packed audience. Verity waded through the crowd, trying desperately to reach her friend, but it wasn't enough. The stage collapsed on Sparky, and Verity couldn't stop Stitches from absorbing her soul into a pin. As Sparky possessed Stitches to talk to her, Verity was forced to come to terms with the fact that she'd let her friend down again. Just like in every previous challenge.

Aftermath of Sparky's Execution

V: "...I really thought I could make it."

S: "It's ok..."

V: "I can't do anything..."

S: "I forgive you..."

That conversation was a turning point for Verity. Following it, she took to practicing on Sparky's guitar in the Citrine Quarters, and grew closer to Kalei and Lars. Tensions with Faye had completely boiled over however, and it was clear to everyone that they would kill one another if nothing changed. So Verity changed something.

Behind Faye's back, she had Lars and Kalei swear in writing not to assist Faye in killing her, even if Verity fought back in self-defense. In return, she promised not to kill Faye. She then showed Faye those notes, basically telling her "you're on your own if you try to hurt me", and went into the next challenge feeling more secure as a result.

Challenge three switched the teams around, and ended with Kalei and Verity performing a tag team missile strike on Lars, nearly killing him.

At the prospect of Lars dying, a sense of community is finally formed. Everyone holds on to him as he's dragged up to his execution (though Kalei let go momentarily, only for Verity to force her to grab back on). With everyone working together, Lars' execution is defeated, and everyone is finally on the same page. Together, they would work together to defeat Stitches! Nobody else would die!

Anyways, Faye and Verity died during the boss gauntlet. FakerToddbot killed Faye, and Verity was incinerated to death by Maxbot. Fucking Maxbot.

It's okay, they got better. During the challenge, all who died before and then were brought back in pinbots to help with the fight. And when it was over, they all got to keep the robotic bodies. Sick.

Verity got three amazing things from this ending. She got her best friend back, an offer to join Adrenaline Rush from Sparky after she shows the fruits of her practice, and she got to make Stitches touch his own butt like an idiot one more time. Truly, life couldn't be better.

Hell is Suite 2: The One Where Verity Is Canon Gay

Verity in HiS2, embracing the Adrenaline Rush brand

Hell is Suite 2 Renegame is basically a sitcom starring the cast from HiS1. Verity played the role of the gal that everybody wanted to get with, and all were shocked but also not shocked when she started dating Sparky part-way through.

Look, there isn't really a ton to say about this one, because most of it is silly fun nonsense, but basically all you need to know about Verity here is:

-She starts dating Sparky.

-Lars confesses his own feelings for her, and she respectfully turns him down. Life is slightly more awkward.

-Verity is totally into body modding, and has a bunch of different noses with all sorts of wacky features. Also extendo arms, but that never ends up being important.

-Verity's cat looks horrifically similar to Gareth Gervaise, the man who killed Quatro. The cat's name is even Gervaise for pete's sake! It's a sphinx cat with a skin disorder that means it has to wear adorable dragon pajamas.

-Verity comes clean about her trauma to her friends, seeing by the pattern of the challenges they go through that it was gonna come up whether she liked it or not.

Game Statistics and Mechanics

Verity is on the weaker side, her only advantage being her slightly above average agility. She's often best as a support fighter, having boons that let her assist allies and banes that incentivize not getting hit. In Hell is Suite 2, Verity also gains an optional set of team abilities that can only be used when fighting alongside Sparky Tempest. These team abilities are focused around supporting allies (mostly Sparky) and fighting in-sync.

Name	Type	Description
Intimidation Tactics (HiS, HiS2)	Boon	Just being in Verity’s presence is enough to make anyone weak in the knees. The minute she nails you with that evil eye, you’re bound to lose some motivation. If Verity is in combat, enemies' attack and defense rolls get -1.
Unpolished Psy (HiS, HiS2)	Bane	Verity’s esper abilities are way too hard for her to handle, especially because she never found a way to harness them. There’s a chance that after she takes any sort of damage, she might take extra damage from her raw psychic energy. A DC d5 will be rolled, then the damage roll.
PUPPETRY (HiS, HiS2)	Skill	Verity usually hides her esper abilities, but if you see an option open to you in combat, you can force a teammate to attack for you, guard for you, or use them as a decoy and run. The success will be rolled for before anything happens. This skill will use the ally’s bonuses (except Verity’s speed is accounted for while fleeing). HOWEVER- since Verity’s esper abilities have gone mildly untapped, she can only use puppetry 2 times during a challenge. (H2G/HiS) (The definition of "Ally" was originally meant to refer to Verity's teammate Sparky at first, but the scope increased to allow Kalei in after Verity and her grew a stronger bond, as well as Lars and Faye after they were all placed on the same team. In HiS2, Verity's abilities improved, giving her the finesse to just puppet her friends from far away. On a 20, she could just barely influence the even further away Renegade Leaders who didn't count as allies at the time due to circumstances. It is unclear how strong her powers are by HiS3.)
Doom Duet (HiS2)	Boon	In a band, everyone has their part. Verity and Sparky can both sing, so they’ve learned to synchronise. If Sparky attacks, Verity can join in and do some extra damage. For every successful hit, a half of that damage is added on. (Requires Sparky)
Two to Tango (HiS2)	Bane	A bond forged with the flames of wrath and the rains of lament- It consists of chains of striking strength. They’re both close friends- practically sisters at this point! Thus, if one of them goes down, it can be pretty worrying. -1 to power, evasion, and success rolls if Sparky is defeated or dead. (Requires Sparky)
JAM SESSION (HiS2)	Skill	Now that Verity's part of the band, Sparky and Verity can bust out the instruments and have a miniature concert, right in battle! This can be whatever effect they decide (status effect to opponent, healing, stat boost for team, stat debuff for enemies, etc.), but it can only be done once in the challenge. Autumn can join for boosting the effect. It can also have as many targets as desired. However, if either Verity or Sparky are defeated or dead, the skill can't be used. (Requires Sparky)
Nose Missile (HiS2)	Misc.	Verity's pinbot body is very easy to modify for their resident mechanic Lars Holt. She commissioned all sorts of detachable noses, each with varying abilities. Some vibrate, some have a built in flashlight, some have a better sense of smell, and one very special one can be fires as a missile. It counts as a Weapon +5, has homing properties, and is only usable by pinbots. Only has one use before it needs to be replaced.
Extendo Arms (HiS2)	Misc.	Verity was just super into body modding in HiS2. At Lars' suggestion (he was very enthusiastic about the idea), Verity accepted his extendo arms body mod. She can now fire her arms across the room and retract them. Theoretically, this is useful.