Alden
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 266
Age: 53(?)
Appearance: The reference image is a commissioned piece and is accurate.
Alden is 6 even, with shoulder-length messy black hair, and several days worth of beard stubble. He is handsome, with a powerful jaw, mid-set cheekbones, and a perpetual grin that makes him seem younger than he really is. His bright green eyes, constantly sparkle with barely contained mirth. He has the lithe well-muscled body of a swordsman, and he moves with considerable grace and dexterity.
If one were to do a more thorough examination of Alden's eyes they may notice a further detail. Around the outside edge of his iris, there's an intricate series of minuscule grey runes.
Underneath his shirt, Alden's skin is a mass of scar tissue. Starting from just below his neckline, there is very little space that does not sport some relic of a past injury. A particularly observant person may also note that among these scars, some are a bright scarlet. These scarlet scars form an intricate series of runes hiding amidst the rest of the scars.
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Equipment: Alden's general loadout when he goes fighting consists of the following:
A twin set of enchanted shortswords. The simple straight blades are unnatural dark, absorbing rather than reflecting light. Giving the enchanted steel an appearance closer to cold iron. The guard has the Isran sun emblem emblazoned in a medallion shape just above the guard, which is wrapped in simple leather. The enchantments increase their sharpness and durability, as well as being able to ignite the blood of anything that he has pierced with either blade.
Numerous braces and hidden throwing knives all over his body. At one point, these were also enchanted but when the calamity struck he didn't have time to grab his original set. So these are all well-made but ultimately mundane weapons. Still, with his strength and skill, they can be quite deadly.
Unfortunately, at present, he is also missing his armour. His preferred armour is leather dyed in mottled black and greys, with strike plates sewn between layers for added protection. His old set was also enchanted for increased protection from physical and magical attacks.
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Skills and Abilities: Alden is, for lack of a better term, a weapon master. He has been trained to use almost any weapon you can think to name. Relentless daily training with each, with extraordinarily demanding expectations on performance and harsh incentives for failure giving a level of skill with most of them that make him formidable.
However, his preferred style involves twin short swords. While he is skilled with all of his weapons thanks to training, he discovered a natural talent with the blade. His level of skill when wielding his short swords is on another level entirely, nearly transcendent in his skill.
On top of that, he is a living magical enchantment. Carved into his body are a variety of runes that grant him numerous innate abilities. He is inhumanly strong, around three to four times stronger than a man in a similar state of physical fitness would be. This also applies to his endurance, speed, reflexes, and other physical traits. He also has regenerative abilities exceeding human normal, able to heal from even broken bones in a matter of days rather than weeks.
In addition, he is immune to most poisons and resistant to the rest. The runes etched into his eyes ensure he can see the same no matter the level of light and reveal magical auras to him. Runes along his back make him impossible to scry on directly and provide him a measure of resistance to magical attack. This, combined with training, also makes him immune to magical mental influence. Finally, runes on his feet dampen any sound he might make taking his already considerable stealth abilities to another level entirely.
Speaking of his training also included all of the skills one would think an Assassin should have. He knows how to mix poisons, move without being seen or making noise, scale walls, lie or disguise himself, pick locks, pick pockets, just for starters. He is also quite skilled at clerical work and he has some diplomacy ability after thirty years leading the Sun Marshals.
Beyond all of this, Alden also possesses an incredible amount of willpower. If Alden decides that he will do something, there is very little that can stop him from doing it. In fact, at present, the only thing that could deter him from a course of action is Captain Naoki. The former Empress is the only person he has any loyalty to and he often values her judgement on matters above his own.
-------------------------------------------
Biography: Alden was born to a small farming family in an out-of-the-way village. His parents named him Toan and until he was five his destiny was most likely to live and die on the same farm he was born. However, that all changed when Pride arrived.
The leader of a criminal group known as The Set, Pride offered his parents a sum of money that would make any poor farmer's heart stop. Enough money to change their lives forever and all he wanted was Alden, one of nearly a dozen children. A child that wasn't even old enough to help with chores around the farm yet. And the man as so nice, he wanted a ward that he could train to be a retainer how bad of a life could that be?
The answer to that question was basically Hell. Pride was a potent alchemist, enchanter, and scholar and he had but one goal in mind. To create a superior warrior. Alden was subjected to hellish daily training along with six other children. Forced to learn to fight with every weapon, against any foe, in any condition. His limbs were broken deliberately and he was forced to continue to fight and train in constant agony. And this was among the mildest of the ways he was trained.
The culmination of the training came when he was twelve. When he and the six other children were locked in a room and told that the only one who got to leave... was the only one to survive. Of course, surviving was hardly a reward.
Once Pride had only the strongest of the children left he proceeded to the next step of his plan. Alden's memories and identity were seared away as Pride carved runes into his flesh and his very soul. Transforming the young man into a living magical artifact and keeping him on a drug that suppressed all of his emotions.
From there Alden became the new Wrath of the set, a weapon meant only to slay those he was told to. That may have been all he would be but Pride made a miscalculation, Alden's runes helped him to build an immunity to the dosage meant to keep his emotions in check, a weakness made worse by Pride having let him keep his anger thinking it would make him a better weapon. Eventually, events conspired and Alden snapped when the only member of The Set to be kind to him, Sloth, was killed for threatening to expose Pride.
Alden, driven into a deeper rage than ever before killed Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and even disembowelled Pride. Greed manage to escape and Alden slaughtered everything in his path trying to catch the man. Eventually succeeding in his goal. Bereft of a target for his rage and the chase having left him in the middle of nowhere Alden finally collapsed the trauma and coming off of the dosage causing him to bury most of his memories.
He wound up in Isra where his talents and skill soon earned him the eye of the then, criminal Madam Naoki. She recruited him as one of her enforcers a role he continued as her power expanded and grew until she finally became Empress. His reward for his loyalty? Appointment to the head of The Sun Marshals her special police force, effectively making him her right-hand man.
During this time he also uncovered his own past and learned that Pride had survived, the man had made preparations for such an eventuality and his death only saw his soul moving to a phylactery as he became a lich.
Pride created a new Set, this time making each member just as he made Alden. Eventually, this culminated in Pride attacking Isra and his eventual, final defeat.
Decades have passed since that time and Alden, whose power kept him at his prime for years continued to serve Isra until the new calamity took him to The Island of Mists, his empress reduced to a captain and he now serving as her first mate.
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Allegiances: Naoki and Port Argentum
Place of Residence: Port Argentum
Registered: Mar 21, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Alden on Jan 8, 2023 14:21:57 GMT -5
It was becoming rather apparent to Alden that he wasn't going to be listened to. At least, not to the extent he might have preferred. At least she got straight to work as he had requested, Anastasia guiding thread and needle through his flesh without further build-up. As Alden had promised, he didn't show any visible reaction to the pain of the work being done to his body. Indeed, the only sign that he even felt it was the slight tensing of muscle when the needle first pushed through the skin but even that faded as he adjusted to the sensation of being stitched up once again.
"I do not think I can stop you from doing your job as you see fit. Not without taking action I do not wish to take."
Alden said as she explained why he should let her stitch his wounds. This wasn't the first time he'd dealt with a healer, he was used to them giving orders and expecting to be obeyed by any who happened to fall under their care. If Anastasia wanted to waste resources on him, he wasn't going to be able to stop her without resorting to physical action. A risk that he wasn't willing to take when it was just easier to let her work.
"Blood is like any liquid, it follows the path of least resistance."
The look that Alden gave the patchwork nurse said that he fully expected blood to find its way to all kinds of nooks and crannies. If there were ever two professions that reason to know just how bad blood could be for fabric professional healer and professional killer were them. They both dealt with blood and the body, but one profession was focused on making sure the blood didn't leave the body and the other profession tried to make that happen.
"Some of our scouts reported a dangerous beast in the jungle not far from one of the wood-cutting camps. I went to investigate. It was a bit like a gorilla, larger and with rock-like growths on its body. I didn't want to kill it but it didn't want to leave peacefully."
Alden explained after she inquired as to what had happened to him. Admittedly, he didn't outright say he'd gotten into a fistfight with the creature but she could probably figure that out. Since if he'd meant to kill it, he probably would have used the short swords he carried with him.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Jan 9, 2023 5:49:18 GMT -5
Anastasia’s strange grin pulled up a fraction at the corners of her mouth, satisfied that Alden was finally behaving. Thankfully his injuries did not require the more rare sections of her inventory, instead requiring mostly thread of which she had plenty of. “In the infirmary I am unstoppable, Alden. Immoveable. In charge. I am glad you understand now.” Considering her slightly strange, unnatural existence, not many would likely tell if she was speaking literally or metaphorically. It wasn’t something she wanted to find out, and most would be in agreement.
“Thankfully it is thicker than water,” Stasia says in agreement as she steps around Alden’s shoulder, and then in front of him. “Lay down please,” she says, interrupting herself. “Arm out. Thank you.” She takes off her gloves for a moment and places her hands on Alden’s broken wrist, then the strangest thing happens. Her fingers each split in half, turning into twenty digits, each spread out across the skin and muscle of the wrist. Each finger presses with a different pressure, probing the appendage for the breaks. “Which means it will be easier to stop. I will have you cleaned up before you leave, you should not lose any blood once you have returned home. Not without picking at your stitches. Scratching. Prodding.” Her eyes look up from the wrist and into Alden’s with an excited look flashing in the blues and greens. “This may hurt. One. Two.” She didn’t even get to three, as with a precise movement of her wrists and each digit, the bone snapped back into place with a loud crack. Anastasia is quick to wrap the wrist up with a bandage and a splint to keep it in place. “Don’t try to move it. Let your healing factor and my work fix it, or it may shift again.”
She gently placed his wrist down, then slipped her gloves back on and leant over his torso to begin stitching his chest back together as she listened to his tale of valour and violence. “This creature, I assume you managed to end it?” she asks, carefully watching as his wounds pulled back together between her threads. “I must request access to the body. A beast like this sounds like it would be fascinating. Part golem, perhaps? Hm.” Could this beasts natural ability to incorporate mineral deposits into its body be translated to other creatures? To humans? A natural armour like that would prove invaluable to the people of the town. She would need to speak with the leaders of the town before even attempting such a thing, but the theoretical portion would be fun to figure out.
“You have done well to defeat it regardless,” she comments as she works. “But I am not surprised given your physique. If you were not in immediate need of my medical assistance, I would have liked to have examined you more thoroughly.”
She snapped the thread and tied it off on his last torso injury, towards the bottom of his abdomen, then tied the next section to her needle. “All that’s left is beneath the waist, Mr. Alden. I will remove the splinters and external punctures, but I will need you to remove your garments so that I may stitch up the…” she takes a pause to examine his legs for a moment. “Two gashes, three tears, and bandage the nine cuts.” She takes a moment to mentally double check, examining the blood patches and their patterns, then she nods with satisfaction. “Most people find these sections to be delicate, and prefer there to be as little scarring as possible. Both the patient, and their potential partners.” She steps back to give him some room, her hands behind her back. “Though I think I can speak for both of us when I say we are beyond this as the owners of said scars, hm?” She cocks her head just a little with that strange grin on her face. “And I can only speak for myself now, but I’ve yet to find a partner who was entirely put off by them.”
Then her head cocks back again. “Hm. Perhaps that was too personal? Apologies, Dr. Marks has asked me to improve my bedside manner. I understand some patients are put at ease and distracted with gossip, even if it is not to my liking.”
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Alden
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 266
Age: 53(?)
Appearance: The reference image is a commissioned piece and is accurate.
Alden is 6 even, with shoulder-length messy black hair, and several days worth of beard stubble. He is handsome, with a powerful jaw, mid-set cheekbones, and a perpetual grin that makes him seem younger than he really is. His bright green eyes, constantly sparkle with barely contained mirth. He has the lithe well-muscled body of a swordsman, and he moves with considerable grace and dexterity.
If one were to do a more thorough examination of Alden's eyes they may notice a further detail. Around the outside edge of his iris, there's an intricate series of minuscule grey runes.
Underneath his shirt, Alden's skin is a mass of scar tissue. Starting from just below his neckline, there is very little space that does not sport some relic of a past injury. A particularly observant person may also note that among these scars, some are a bright scarlet. These scarlet scars form an intricate series of runes hiding amidst the rest of the scars.
-------------------------------------------
Equipment: Alden's general loadout when he goes fighting consists of the following:
A twin set of enchanted shortswords. The simple straight blades are unnatural dark, absorbing rather than reflecting light. Giving the enchanted steel an appearance closer to cold iron. The guard has the Isran sun emblem emblazoned in a medallion shape just above the guard, which is wrapped in simple leather. The enchantments increase their sharpness and durability, as well as being able to ignite the blood of anything that he has pierced with either blade.
Numerous braces and hidden throwing knives all over his body. At one point, these were also enchanted but when the calamity struck he didn't have time to grab his original set. So these are all well-made but ultimately mundane weapons. Still, with his strength and skill, they can be quite deadly.
Unfortunately, at present, he is also missing his armour. His preferred armour is leather dyed in mottled black and greys, with strike plates sewn between layers for added protection. His old set was also enchanted for increased protection from physical and magical attacks.
-------------------------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Alden is, for lack of a better term, a weapon master. He has been trained to use almost any weapon you can think to name. Relentless daily training with each, with extraordinarily demanding expectations on performance and harsh incentives for failure giving a level of skill with most of them that make him formidable.
However, his preferred style involves twin short swords. While he is skilled with all of his weapons thanks to training, he discovered a natural talent with the blade. His level of skill when wielding his short swords is on another level entirely, nearly transcendent in his skill.
On top of that, he is a living magical enchantment. Carved into his body are a variety of runes that grant him numerous innate abilities. He is inhumanly strong, around three to four times stronger than a man in a similar state of physical fitness would be. This also applies to his endurance, speed, reflexes, and other physical traits. He also has regenerative abilities exceeding human normal, able to heal from even broken bones in a matter of days rather than weeks.
In addition, he is immune to most poisons and resistant to the rest. The runes etched into his eyes ensure he can see the same no matter the level of light and reveal magical auras to him. Runes along his back make him impossible to scry on directly and provide him a measure of resistance to magical attack. This, combined with training, also makes him immune to magical mental influence. Finally, runes on his feet dampen any sound he might make taking his already considerable stealth abilities to another level entirely.
Speaking of his training also included all of the skills one would think an Assassin should have. He knows how to mix poisons, move without being seen or making noise, scale walls, lie or disguise himself, pick locks, pick pockets, just for starters. He is also quite skilled at clerical work and he has some diplomacy ability after thirty years leading the Sun Marshals.
Beyond all of this, Alden also possesses an incredible amount of willpower. If Alden decides that he will do something, there is very little that can stop him from doing it. In fact, at present, the only thing that could deter him from a course of action is Captain Naoki. The former Empress is the only person he has any loyalty to and he often values her judgement on matters above his own.
-------------------------------------------
Biography: Alden was born to a small farming family in an out-of-the-way village. His parents named him Toan and until he was five his destiny was most likely to live and die on the same farm he was born. However, that all changed when Pride arrived.
The leader of a criminal group known as The Set, Pride offered his parents a sum of money that would make any poor farmer's heart stop. Enough money to change their lives forever and all he wanted was Alden, one of nearly a dozen children. A child that wasn't even old enough to help with chores around the farm yet. And the man as so nice, he wanted a ward that he could train to be a retainer how bad of a life could that be?
The answer to that question was basically Hell. Pride was a potent alchemist, enchanter, and scholar and he had but one goal in mind. To create a superior warrior. Alden was subjected to hellish daily training along with six other children. Forced to learn to fight with every weapon, against any foe, in any condition. His limbs were broken deliberately and he was forced to continue to fight and train in constant agony. And this was among the mildest of the ways he was trained.
The culmination of the training came when he was twelve. When he and the six other children were locked in a room and told that the only one who got to leave... was the only one to survive. Of course, surviving was hardly a reward.
Once Pride had only the strongest of the children left he proceeded to the next step of his plan. Alden's memories and identity were seared away as Pride carved runes into his flesh and his very soul. Transforming the young man into a living magical artifact and keeping him on a drug that suppressed all of his emotions.
From there Alden became the new Wrath of the set, a weapon meant only to slay those he was told to. That may have been all he would be but Pride made a miscalculation, Alden's runes helped him to build an immunity to the dosage meant to keep his emotions in check, a weakness made worse by Pride having let him keep his anger thinking it would make him a better weapon. Eventually, events conspired and Alden snapped when the only member of The Set to be kind to him, Sloth, was killed for threatening to expose Pride.
Alden, driven into a deeper rage than ever before killed Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and even disembowelled Pride. Greed manage to escape and Alden slaughtered everything in his path trying to catch the man. Eventually succeeding in his goal. Bereft of a target for his rage and the chase having left him in the middle of nowhere Alden finally collapsed the trauma and coming off of the dosage causing him to bury most of his memories.
He wound up in Isra where his talents and skill soon earned him the eye of the then, criminal Madam Naoki. She recruited him as one of her enforcers a role he continued as her power expanded and grew until she finally became Empress. His reward for his loyalty? Appointment to the head of The Sun Marshals her special police force, effectively making him her right-hand man.
During this time he also uncovered his own past and learned that Pride had survived, the man had made preparations for such an eventuality and his death only saw his soul moving to a phylactery as he became a lich.
Pride created a new Set, this time making each member just as he made Alden. Eventually, this culminated in Pride attacking Isra and his eventual, final defeat.
Decades have passed since that time and Alden, whose power kept him at his prime for years continued to serve Isra until the new calamity took him to The Island of Mists, his empress reduced to a captain and he now serving as her first mate.
-------------------------------------------
Allegiances: Naoki and Port Argentum
Place of Residence: Port Argentum
Registered: Mar 21, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Alden on Jan 10, 2023 12:33:27 GMT -5
Alden remained silent as Anastasia asserted her dominance of the infirmary. He didn't have much left to say really as she directed and prodded him into position. He laid out as instructed and didn't seem to be bothered as her fingers split into pieces. No grunt of pain left his lips as his bone was set into place. As she changed the subject back to the fight he'd been in he finally looked her way and shook his head.
"I didn't kill it. There was no point once the fight was out of it."
While the creature had been poking around the lumber camp, it hadn't actually caused any damage. It had only been protecting its territory which the people of the port had been encroaching on. He'd told them to not head that way as they expanded the camp, Alden just hoped they listened. He hoped the gorilla creature and its family listened and found a safer place to be than near the growing port of Argentium.
"Don't worry about it. I am not offended."
Anastasia turned the conversation toward more personal matters but Alden just shrugged off the words. He didn't find anything particularly shameful in nudity and kicked his pants off without any fuss. She had already proven that it wasn't worth arguing with her anyway so even if he'd have rather left now that the bulk of the damage was dealt with, he would let her finish her work.
"I also have had some luck with partners. Some people find scars off-putting, others don't seem to mind them."
Of course, it might be because Alden mostly attracted women who found scars on a man to be more exciting than off-putting. It might be harder for Anastasia to find a partner who didn't mind scars on a female form than it had been for Alden. Gender-norms could be quite annoying in little ways like that.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Jan 10, 2023 15:49:51 GMT -5
“A shame,” Anastasia quietly muses as she hears of the beast’s fate. “Oh well… one day, if it indigenous, I’m certain another will pass my slate. One can hope.” That grin twitches at the prospect of eventually discovering the inner workings of such a creature. She’d have to notify the hunters, in case they manage to take one down.
She remains standing straight as Alden undresses the remainder of his clothes, always the image of professionalism when in the infirmary. What she sees is of no medical concern to Anastasia, and her opinions would remain her own for the time being. As Alden settles again, she reproduces her needle and gets back to work pulling the man’s wounds back together.
Though with Alden’s lack of offence and his continuation of her perhaps slightly unprofessional line of discussion, the doctor seems encouraged. Her bedside manner did need improvement after all, and while she disliked gossip at least it wasn’t something boring, like someone’s afternoon or about their pet like it had been with her other patients that day. “I find scars fascinating,” she says as she gently pulls at the thread. “I have heard some claim that each has a story, which I am inclined to believe. Agree with. Concur. For me, my scars are the border of where someone begins and someone ends, even if their names are long forgotten.”
She cuts the thread on one wound before moving to the next. “Their lives are not. Fascinatingly, and for reasons I am yet to understand, I will on occasion get flashes of memories that are not my own. I am inclined to believe they come from those I am constructed from.” Onto the next wound she goes. “I have only had one partner, and I believe he was interested because of who I am, not what I look like.” She peers up at Alden for a moment as she pulls her thread. “While my father made symmetrical and aesthetic considerations while constructing my body, many are put off by my looks and… existence, but they seem to change their minds. I believe I am making friends.” That grin tugs at her cheeks for another moment before she looks back to her work.
“What is your opinion on scars, Mr. Alden?” she asks, going about her business. Another wound down, one major one to go before she can bandage the smaller wounds.
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Alden
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 266
Age: 53(?)
Appearance: The reference image is a commissioned piece and is accurate.
Alden is 6 even, with shoulder-length messy black hair, and several days worth of beard stubble. He is handsome, with a powerful jaw, mid-set cheekbones, and a perpetual grin that makes him seem younger than he really is. His bright green eyes, constantly sparkle with barely contained mirth. He has the lithe well-muscled body of a swordsman, and he moves with considerable grace and dexterity.
If one were to do a more thorough examination of Alden's eyes they may notice a further detail. Around the outside edge of his iris, there's an intricate series of minuscule grey runes.
Underneath his shirt, Alden's skin is a mass of scar tissue. Starting from just below his neckline, there is very little space that does not sport some relic of a past injury. A particularly observant person may also note that among these scars, some are a bright scarlet. These scarlet scars form an intricate series of runes hiding amidst the rest of the scars.
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Equipment: Alden's general loadout when he goes fighting consists of the following:
A twin set of enchanted shortswords. The simple straight blades are unnatural dark, absorbing rather than reflecting light. Giving the enchanted steel an appearance closer to cold iron. The guard has the Isran sun emblem emblazoned in a medallion shape just above the guard, which is wrapped in simple leather. The enchantments increase their sharpness and durability, as well as being able to ignite the blood of anything that he has pierced with either blade.
Numerous braces and hidden throwing knives all over his body. At one point, these were also enchanted but when the calamity struck he didn't have time to grab his original set. So these are all well-made but ultimately mundane weapons. Still, with his strength and skill, they can be quite deadly.
Unfortunately, at present, he is also missing his armour. His preferred armour is leather dyed in mottled black and greys, with strike plates sewn between layers for added protection. His old set was also enchanted for increased protection from physical and magical attacks.
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Skills and Abilities: Alden is, for lack of a better term, a weapon master. He has been trained to use almost any weapon you can think to name. Relentless daily training with each, with extraordinarily demanding expectations on performance and harsh incentives for failure giving a level of skill with most of them that make him formidable.
However, his preferred style involves twin short swords. While he is skilled with all of his weapons thanks to training, he discovered a natural talent with the blade. His level of skill when wielding his short swords is on another level entirely, nearly transcendent in his skill.
On top of that, he is a living magical enchantment. Carved into his body are a variety of runes that grant him numerous innate abilities. He is inhumanly strong, around three to four times stronger than a man in a similar state of physical fitness would be. This also applies to his endurance, speed, reflexes, and other physical traits. He also has regenerative abilities exceeding human normal, able to heal from even broken bones in a matter of days rather than weeks.
In addition, he is immune to most poisons and resistant to the rest. The runes etched into his eyes ensure he can see the same no matter the level of light and reveal magical auras to him. Runes along his back make him impossible to scry on directly and provide him a measure of resistance to magical attack. This, combined with training, also makes him immune to magical mental influence. Finally, runes on his feet dampen any sound he might make taking his already considerable stealth abilities to another level entirely.
Speaking of his training also included all of the skills one would think an Assassin should have. He knows how to mix poisons, move without being seen or making noise, scale walls, lie or disguise himself, pick locks, pick pockets, just for starters. He is also quite skilled at clerical work and he has some diplomacy ability after thirty years leading the Sun Marshals.
Beyond all of this, Alden also possesses an incredible amount of willpower. If Alden decides that he will do something, there is very little that can stop him from doing it. In fact, at present, the only thing that could deter him from a course of action is Captain Naoki. The former Empress is the only person he has any loyalty to and he often values her judgement on matters above his own.
-------------------------------------------
Biography: Alden was born to a small farming family in an out-of-the-way village. His parents named him Toan and until he was five his destiny was most likely to live and die on the same farm he was born. However, that all changed when Pride arrived.
The leader of a criminal group known as The Set, Pride offered his parents a sum of money that would make any poor farmer's heart stop. Enough money to change their lives forever and all he wanted was Alden, one of nearly a dozen children. A child that wasn't even old enough to help with chores around the farm yet. And the man as so nice, he wanted a ward that he could train to be a retainer how bad of a life could that be?
The answer to that question was basically Hell. Pride was a potent alchemist, enchanter, and scholar and he had but one goal in mind. To create a superior warrior. Alden was subjected to hellish daily training along with six other children. Forced to learn to fight with every weapon, against any foe, in any condition. His limbs were broken deliberately and he was forced to continue to fight and train in constant agony. And this was among the mildest of the ways he was trained.
The culmination of the training came when he was twelve. When he and the six other children were locked in a room and told that the only one who got to leave... was the only one to survive. Of course, surviving was hardly a reward.
Once Pride had only the strongest of the children left he proceeded to the next step of his plan. Alden's memories and identity were seared away as Pride carved runes into his flesh and his very soul. Transforming the young man into a living magical artifact and keeping him on a drug that suppressed all of his emotions.
From there Alden became the new Wrath of the set, a weapon meant only to slay those he was told to. That may have been all he would be but Pride made a miscalculation, Alden's runes helped him to build an immunity to the dosage meant to keep his emotions in check, a weakness made worse by Pride having let him keep his anger thinking it would make him a better weapon. Eventually, events conspired and Alden snapped when the only member of The Set to be kind to him, Sloth, was killed for threatening to expose Pride.
Alden, driven into a deeper rage than ever before killed Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and even disembowelled Pride. Greed manage to escape and Alden slaughtered everything in his path trying to catch the man. Eventually succeeding in his goal. Bereft of a target for his rage and the chase having left him in the middle of nowhere Alden finally collapsed the trauma and coming off of the dosage causing him to bury most of his memories.
He wound up in Isra where his talents and skill soon earned him the eye of the then, criminal Madam Naoki. She recruited him as one of her enforcers a role he continued as her power expanded and grew until she finally became Empress. His reward for his loyalty? Appointment to the head of The Sun Marshals her special police force, effectively making him her right-hand man.
During this time he also uncovered his own past and learned that Pride had survived, the man had made preparations for such an eventuality and his death only saw his soul moving to a phylactery as he became a lich.
Pride created a new Set, this time making each member just as he made Alden. Eventually, this culminated in Pride attacking Isra and his eventual, final defeat.
Decades have passed since that time and Alden, whose power kept him at his prime for years continued to serve Isra until the new calamity took him to The Island of Mists, his empress reduced to a captain and he now serving as her first mate.
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Allegiances: Naoki and Port Argentum
Place of Residence: Port Argentum
Registered: Mar 21, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Alden on Jan 11, 2023 19:10:35 GMT -5
Anastasia managed to get a reaction from Alden finally, not of pain but of disapproval. While he didn't say anything hearing her talk about the potential death of one of the gorillas didn't sit well with him. He'd been thinking quite a bit about his role as a weapon and had done his best to keep the creature alive. He didn't think that Anastasia was incorrect in her assessment he still didn't like the way she grinned at the thought.
"There are many in Argentium who are willing to look past surface looks. So long as what is inside is good."
Alden said as she worked and talked while he remained silent for the most part. But her note about making friends had resonated somewhat with him. He didn't know much about the patchwork nurse but he'd been in a somewhat similar situation to her. Alone, masterless, and trying to find a place among people. The fine details differed but he'd managed to find some true friends and he was sure she would as well. So long as her earlier grin was more due to academic curiosity rather than sadistic enthusiasm.
"Scars are a fact of life. Everyone gathers a few in their time, perhaps for some each one is tied to a specific story. For us? They simply tell people what sort of life we've lived."
For him, his scars spoke of violence. The number, the variety, and the deliberateness in each one told that story. Of suffering, of fighting, of death. They marked him as a man whose life was always in the shadow of the ending of another. Anastasia's told a different story, so neat and perfect. Deliberate stitchwork meant to endure through the years and heal back properly. Certainly, her story suggested death as well but it also suggested artistry and great care from her maker. Or that was what he saw when he looked at Anastasia, he'd not met this Vulpin so he couldn't truly say.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Jan 12, 2023 3:10:16 GMT -5
"Or a life one may now live," Anastasia adds, considering she had not been alive for very long, at least not this version of her. Who she was before was almost entirely still a mystery to the woman, she had only had a couple of flashes from what she believed was truly her.
With the final larger gash sealed with masterful precision, a contrast to the other scars along his body, Anastasia turns and heads for the sink. Using a bucket of fresh water, a strong dose of herbal extract, and a rag, she begins to clean the lesser wounds, then bandages them. "I am glad people can look beyond the surface. I had mused that people would likely not when I first started my journey in rebirth. Dr. Marks and the likes of the Mayor had called me various… unflattering names. Insults. I took no offence, of course, names are meaningless after all." With his leg wounds now cleaned, she moves to his torso.
"It has worked out anyway," she says, her smile never fading. "Dr. Marks is a dear friend, one who I trust entirely. His tune shifted when he realised I am no abomination of science, but a real person who, to him, had no choice but to be created. I would say rescued but…" she looks into Alden's eyes for a moment. "Semantics." Then back to her work. "He took the opportunity to actually know me and now we even spend a little time beyond these walls together."
With his torso patched completely, she takes a few moments to give his skin a scrub, from top to bottom, ridding him of the sight and smell of blood and dirt. Though a master of surgery at the infirmary, she is not beyond a sponge bath. "You may sit up now," she says, stepping back from the table and clearly proud of her work. Then again, a grin appears to be her resting face as it had yet to falter beyond her discussion of the ape. "I will clean off your back, then I believe you may get dressed."
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Alden
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 266
Age: 53(?)
Appearance: The reference image is a commissioned piece and is accurate.
Alden is 6 even, with shoulder-length messy black hair, and several days worth of beard stubble. He is handsome, with a powerful jaw, mid-set cheekbones, and a perpetual grin that makes him seem younger than he really is. His bright green eyes, constantly sparkle with barely contained mirth. He has the lithe well-muscled body of a swordsman, and he moves with considerable grace and dexterity.
If one were to do a more thorough examination of Alden's eyes they may notice a further detail. Around the outside edge of his iris, there's an intricate series of minuscule grey runes.
Underneath his shirt, Alden's skin is a mass of scar tissue. Starting from just below his neckline, there is very little space that does not sport some relic of a past injury. A particularly observant person may also note that among these scars, some are a bright scarlet. These scarlet scars form an intricate series of runes hiding amidst the rest of the scars.
-------------------------------------------
Equipment: Alden's general loadout when he goes fighting consists of the following:
A twin set of enchanted shortswords. The simple straight blades are unnatural dark, absorbing rather than reflecting light. Giving the enchanted steel an appearance closer to cold iron. The guard has the Isran sun emblem emblazoned in a medallion shape just above the guard, which is wrapped in simple leather. The enchantments increase their sharpness and durability, as well as being able to ignite the blood of anything that he has pierced with either blade.
Numerous braces and hidden throwing knives all over his body. At one point, these were also enchanted but when the calamity struck he didn't have time to grab his original set. So these are all well-made but ultimately mundane weapons. Still, with his strength and skill, they can be quite deadly.
Unfortunately, at present, he is also missing his armour. His preferred armour is leather dyed in mottled black and greys, with strike plates sewn between layers for added protection. His old set was also enchanted for increased protection from physical and magical attacks.
-------------------------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Alden is, for lack of a better term, a weapon master. He has been trained to use almost any weapon you can think to name. Relentless daily training with each, with extraordinarily demanding expectations on performance and harsh incentives for failure giving a level of skill with most of them that make him formidable.
However, his preferred style involves twin short swords. While he is skilled with all of his weapons thanks to training, he discovered a natural talent with the blade. His level of skill when wielding his short swords is on another level entirely, nearly transcendent in his skill.
On top of that, he is a living magical enchantment. Carved into his body are a variety of runes that grant him numerous innate abilities. He is inhumanly strong, around three to four times stronger than a man in a similar state of physical fitness would be. This also applies to his endurance, speed, reflexes, and other physical traits. He also has regenerative abilities exceeding human normal, able to heal from even broken bones in a matter of days rather than weeks.
In addition, he is immune to most poisons and resistant to the rest. The runes etched into his eyes ensure he can see the same no matter the level of light and reveal magical auras to him. Runes along his back make him impossible to scry on directly and provide him a measure of resistance to magical attack. This, combined with training, also makes him immune to magical mental influence. Finally, runes on his feet dampen any sound he might make taking his already considerable stealth abilities to another level entirely.
Speaking of his training also included all of the skills one would think an Assassin should have. He knows how to mix poisons, move without being seen or making noise, scale walls, lie or disguise himself, pick locks, pick pockets, just for starters. He is also quite skilled at clerical work and he has some diplomacy ability after thirty years leading the Sun Marshals.
Beyond all of this, Alden also possesses an incredible amount of willpower. If Alden decides that he will do something, there is very little that can stop him from doing it. In fact, at present, the only thing that could deter him from a course of action is Captain Naoki. The former Empress is the only person he has any loyalty to and he often values her judgement on matters above his own.
-------------------------------------------
Biography: Alden was born to a small farming family in an out-of-the-way village. His parents named him Toan and until he was five his destiny was most likely to live and die on the same farm he was born. However, that all changed when Pride arrived.
The leader of a criminal group known as The Set, Pride offered his parents a sum of money that would make any poor farmer's heart stop. Enough money to change their lives forever and all he wanted was Alden, one of nearly a dozen children. A child that wasn't even old enough to help with chores around the farm yet. And the man as so nice, he wanted a ward that he could train to be a retainer how bad of a life could that be?
The answer to that question was basically Hell. Pride was a potent alchemist, enchanter, and scholar and he had but one goal in mind. To create a superior warrior. Alden was subjected to hellish daily training along with six other children. Forced to learn to fight with every weapon, against any foe, in any condition. His limbs were broken deliberately and he was forced to continue to fight and train in constant agony. And this was among the mildest of the ways he was trained.
The culmination of the training came when he was twelve. When he and the six other children were locked in a room and told that the only one who got to leave... was the only one to survive. Of course, surviving was hardly a reward.
Once Pride had only the strongest of the children left he proceeded to the next step of his plan. Alden's memories and identity were seared away as Pride carved runes into his flesh and his very soul. Transforming the young man into a living magical artifact and keeping him on a drug that suppressed all of his emotions.
From there Alden became the new Wrath of the set, a weapon meant only to slay those he was told to. That may have been all he would be but Pride made a miscalculation, Alden's runes helped him to build an immunity to the dosage meant to keep his emotions in check, a weakness made worse by Pride having let him keep his anger thinking it would make him a better weapon. Eventually, events conspired and Alden snapped when the only member of The Set to be kind to him, Sloth, was killed for threatening to expose Pride.
Alden, driven into a deeper rage than ever before killed Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and even disembowelled Pride. Greed manage to escape and Alden slaughtered everything in his path trying to catch the man. Eventually succeeding in his goal. Bereft of a target for his rage and the chase having left him in the middle of nowhere Alden finally collapsed the trauma and coming off of the dosage causing him to bury most of his memories.
He wound up in Isra where his talents and skill soon earned him the eye of the then, criminal Madam Naoki. She recruited him as one of her enforcers a role he continued as her power expanded and grew until she finally became Empress. His reward for his loyalty? Appointment to the head of The Sun Marshals her special police force, effectively making him her right-hand man.
During this time he also uncovered his own past and learned that Pride had survived, the man had made preparations for such an eventuality and his death only saw his soul moving to a phylactery as he became a lich.
Pride created a new Set, this time making each member just as he made Alden. Eventually, this culminated in Pride attacking Isra and his eventual, final defeat.
Decades have passed since that time and Alden, whose power kept him at his prime for years continued to serve Isra until the new calamity took him to The Island of Mists, his empress reduced to a captain and he now serving as her first mate.
-------------------------------------------
Allegiances: Naoki and Port Argentum
Place of Residence: Port Argentum
Registered: Mar 21, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Alden on Jan 13, 2023 14:07:14 GMT -5
Alden was glad that the procedure was almost over. While he didn't find Anastasia's company particularly objectionable he did dislike taking up her time despite her insisting that he was just as entitled to her care as the rest of the Port. When he'd have survived no matter what it still seemed wrong for him to be there. The stitching at least made the ache of the open wounds fade since he was no longer tearing them open while they tried to heal.
"People tend to dislike what they don't understand. Especially when they think there may be a reason to be afraid of it. I imagine that once they realized you only wanted to help that is when people like Dr. Marks started treating you kinder."
After all, he'd experienced something similar the difference was people had learned that he was something to fear. Maybe not in the direct way where he was actively dangerous to them. But they feared what he was capable of if provoked. He pulled his leggings back on and let her wash his back before he slipped what remained of his vest on as well.
"Thank you for the help."
With little else to add to the conversation, he turned to make his way out so she could tend to patients that were less durable than himself.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Jan 14, 2023 11:14:38 GMT -5
Anastasia finishes up on Alden’s back and steps back, content that the blood had been adequately cleaned up. He looked quite a lot better than when he’d come in, between the cuts and gashes being stitched and the brief sponge back.
“You would be correct,” Anastasia says after Alden’s comment on Dr. Marks. “I proved I wasn’t a thread in the slightest. Doctors have a creed - do no harm - and I take that very seriously.”
She dumps the water down the sink and removes her gloves before washing her hands. “You are most welcome,” she says. “Once your wounds and wrist have healed, please drop in for a brief follow up. I doubt it will take much time. No inconvenience.” She steps from the sink and places her arms behind her. “I would like to ensure everything is still going well, but I will admit I would like to study the results of your healing factor on these wounds. I find the concept quite fascinating.”
Before Alden could step out, however, she steps forward. “Before you leave, Mr. Alden,” she says, the grin looking a little warmer than previously. “After your evaluation and you have healed, I would like to extend an invitation. I am conducting some personal research, there is much I have yet to learn about this world and myself.” That much is true, she could often be found doing various different activities around the town, copying others or asking if she can join in with others. “You and your unique situation has piqued my interest. If you would like to assist me, please come by my house, abode… home. There is no danger, this research is more of a social engagement.”
With that, she stepped forward to assist Alden with the lock and opened the door to the private operating room. “All I ask is that you take it under consideration. That aside, our work here is done, and done quite well if I may say so.” The grin tugs at her cheeks just a little more, beaming with pride. “Have a nice day, Mr. Alden.”
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Alden
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 266
Age: 53(?)
Appearance: The reference image is a commissioned piece and is accurate.
Alden is 6 even, with shoulder-length messy black hair, and several days worth of beard stubble. He is handsome, with a powerful jaw, mid-set cheekbones, and a perpetual grin that makes him seem younger than he really is. His bright green eyes, constantly sparkle with barely contained mirth. He has the lithe well-muscled body of a swordsman, and he moves with considerable grace and dexterity.
If one were to do a more thorough examination of Alden's eyes they may notice a further detail. Around the outside edge of his iris, there's an intricate series of minuscule grey runes.
Underneath his shirt, Alden's skin is a mass of scar tissue. Starting from just below his neckline, there is very little space that does not sport some relic of a past injury. A particularly observant person may also note that among these scars, some are a bright scarlet. These scarlet scars form an intricate series of runes hiding amidst the rest of the scars.
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Equipment: Alden's general loadout when he goes fighting consists of the following:
A twin set of enchanted shortswords. The simple straight blades are unnatural dark, absorbing rather than reflecting light. Giving the enchanted steel an appearance closer to cold iron. The guard has the Isran sun emblem emblazoned in a medallion shape just above the guard, which is wrapped in simple leather. The enchantments increase their sharpness and durability, as well as being able to ignite the blood of anything that he has pierced with either blade.
Numerous braces and hidden throwing knives all over his body. At one point, these were also enchanted but when the calamity struck he didn't have time to grab his original set. So these are all well-made but ultimately mundane weapons. Still, with his strength and skill, they can be quite deadly.
Unfortunately, at present, he is also missing his armour. His preferred armour is leather dyed in mottled black and greys, with strike plates sewn between layers for added protection. His old set was also enchanted for increased protection from physical and magical attacks.
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Skills and Abilities: Alden is, for lack of a better term, a weapon master. He has been trained to use almost any weapon you can think to name. Relentless daily training with each, with extraordinarily demanding expectations on performance and harsh incentives for failure giving a level of skill with most of them that make him formidable.
However, his preferred style involves twin short swords. While he is skilled with all of his weapons thanks to training, he discovered a natural talent with the blade. His level of skill when wielding his short swords is on another level entirely, nearly transcendent in his skill.
On top of that, he is a living magical enchantment. Carved into his body are a variety of runes that grant him numerous innate abilities. He is inhumanly strong, around three to four times stronger than a man in a similar state of physical fitness would be. This also applies to his endurance, speed, reflexes, and other physical traits. He also has regenerative abilities exceeding human normal, able to heal from even broken bones in a matter of days rather than weeks.
In addition, he is immune to most poisons and resistant to the rest. The runes etched into his eyes ensure he can see the same no matter the level of light and reveal magical auras to him. Runes along his back make him impossible to scry on directly and provide him a measure of resistance to magical attack. This, combined with training, also makes him immune to magical mental influence. Finally, runes on his feet dampen any sound he might make taking his already considerable stealth abilities to another level entirely.
Speaking of his training also included all of the skills one would think an Assassin should have. He knows how to mix poisons, move without being seen or making noise, scale walls, lie or disguise himself, pick locks, pick pockets, just for starters. He is also quite skilled at clerical work and he has some diplomacy ability after thirty years leading the Sun Marshals.
Beyond all of this, Alden also possesses an incredible amount of willpower. If Alden decides that he will do something, there is very little that can stop him from doing it. In fact, at present, the only thing that could deter him from a course of action is Captain Naoki. The former Empress is the only person he has any loyalty to and he often values her judgement on matters above his own.
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Biography: Alden was born to a small farming family in an out-of-the-way village. His parents named him Toan and until he was five his destiny was most likely to live and die on the same farm he was born. However, that all changed when Pride arrived.
The leader of a criminal group known as The Set, Pride offered his parents a sum of money that would make any poor farmer's heart stop. Enough money to change their lives forever and all he wanted was Alden, one of nearly a dozen children. A child that wasn't even old enough to help with chores around the farm yet. And the man as so nice, he wanted a ward that he could train to be a retainer how bad of a life could that be?
The answer to that question was basically Hell. Pride was a potent alchemist, enchanter, and scholar and he had but one goal in mind. To create a superior warrior. Alden was subjected to hellish daily training along with six other children. Forced to learn to fight with every weapon, against any foe, in any condition. His limbs were broken deliberately and he was forced to continue to fight and train in constant agony. And this was among the mildest of the ways he was trained.
The culmination of the training came when he was twelve. When he and the six other children were locked in a room and told that the only one who got to leave... was the only one to survive. Of course, surviving was hardly a reward.
Once Pride had only the strongest of the children left he proceeded to the next step of his plan. Alden's memories and identity were seared away as Pride carved runes into his flesh and his very soul. Transforming the young man into a living magical artifact and keeping him on a drug that suppressed all of his emotions.
From there Alden became the new Wrath of the set, a weapon meant only to slay those he was told to. That may have been all he would be but Pride made a miscalculation, Alden's runes helped him to build an immunity to the dosage meant to keep his emotions in check, a weakness made worse by Pride having let him keep his anger thinking it would make him a better weapon. Eventually, events conspired and Alden snapped when the only member of The Set to be kind to him, Sloth, was killed for threatening to expose Pride.
Alden, driven into a deeper rage than ever before killed Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and even disembowelled Pride. Greed manage to escape and Alden slaughtered everything in his path trying to catch the man. Eventually succeeding in his goal. Bereft of a target for his rage and the chase having left him in the middle of nowhere Alden finally collapsed the trauma and coming off of the dosage causing him to bury most of his memories.
He wound up in Isra where his talents and skill soon earned him the eye of the then, criminal Madam Naoki. She recruited him as one of her enforcers a role he continued as her power expanded and grew until she finally became Empress. His reward for his loyalty? Appointment to the head of The Sun Marshals her special police force, effectively making him her right-hand man.
During this time he also uncovered his own past and learned that Pride had survived, the man had made preparations for such an eventuality and his death only saw his soul moving to a phylactery as he became a lich.
Pride created a new Set, this time making each member just as he made Alden. Eventually, this culminated in Pride attacking Isra and his eventual, final defeat.
Decades have passed since that time and Alden, whose power kept him at his prime for years continued to serve Isra until the new calamity took him to The Island of Mists, his empress reduced to a captain and he now serving as her first mate.
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Allegiances: Naoki and Port Argentum
Place of Residence: Port Argentum
Registered: Mar 21, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Alden on Jan 14, 2023 11:54:49 GMT -5
Alden paused as Anastasia caught his attention before he could leave the room. Letting her take over the opening of the door since she more or less seemed intent on doing it herself. He gave her a nod of his head and said after some thought.
"I'll try to remember to stop by before I leave. Which, in regard to your other offer, I would be happy to drop by your home at some point in the future but I can make no promise on when that might happen. I am leaving the Port on a scouting mission of some length not long from now, I have no idea when I'll return."
With that said he stepped past Anastasia and headed out of the infirmary.
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Apr 9, 2023 15:49:26 GMT -5
The heavy door to the infirmary creaked open. It let in the scent of rain, along with a scatter of damp sun-rays. One of the nurses moved in to close it.
She spotted something near the door sill. A splatter. Blood.
“...doctor.”
The nurse's shadow moved. She froze. Some visceral part of her acknowledged that she had caught the tail end of the question addressed to her. That it wasn't actually a question.
There was a shadowy cloaked figure standing just inside the door. In his arms, he carried a young woman with her face writhing in pain. The shadow's cloak that had shielded her from the rain slipped to reveal her clutching her right arm. The splints around it were so fresh they still had leaves. She winced every time she breathed.
“I am looking for the doctor that can reattach limbs.” The shadow said. “Now.”
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Apr 10, 2023 10:34:55 GMT -5
Before the nurse could speak she felt a gloved hand rest on her shoulder and gently shift her aside, revealing the infirmary’s chief of surgery beside her. “Prepare room three please. Heavy triage, category one.” The nurse pursed her lips and gave a nod before scurrying off, calling for other nurses and orderlies as they got to work.
The woman in charge was a strange case. Most of her body was covered by long, tightly fitted sleeves and a doctor’s apron, her hands hidden by matching gloves, and the top half of her face obscured by a porcelain, beaked mask that two eyes peered through, wide and stunning, though one a brilliant shade of green and the other blue.
“I am Doctor Anastasia Vulpin,” she said as she stepped forward, hands shifting behind her back for a moment. “While Doctor Marks is absent I am the chief of medicine here. Reattaching limbs, appendages, offshoots… hm, no, too strange - limbs it is - is my specialty.” She then reached out and gently placed her hand on the stranger’s shoulder as she stepped beside him, guiding him in the right direction. “Come. We have no time to waste.”
There were many rumours circulating around the town about the infirmary surgeon, some that were probably unfounded, while others seemed plausible. How she came to be was the one that caught most people’s attention,and with good reason considering the multi-colored tapestry that had been stitched together to create her skin. While her uniform covered her body, her jawline remained exposed, and though she had a strange, slightly larger than natural grin, the patches seemed to be symmetrical. Gossip had its own agenda as to why that is but her father’s journals answered all - he had pride in his work.
She stepped ahead of the man as they walked, ensuring that she would be the first in the room. The rooms of the infirmary had been built, and sometimes rebuilt, to meet Anastasia’s requirements and expectations and as a result were almost identical - one side was lined with cupboards and shelves above a long bench, a metal bed had been fashioned in the middle of the room, and several mirrors sat around a large lantern above the bed, shining light straight down on the patient.
Satisfied, she spoke again. “Place her down, and I may investigate. Diagnose. Probe. Hm…” She placed her hands behind her back once more. Her words came across calm, if a little scatter brained, but her motions and posture lent itself to an otherworldly grace. She seemed certain of every movement, which only bore more rumours. She’d never be rid of them so it never bothered her, even if she was able to answer any questions that needed answering.
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Apr 11, 2023 16:34:03 GMT -5
“Multiple fracture of the forearm.” Gray explained, accompanying the doctor. His steps were oddly quiet by her side. “Closed, but with an associated wound.” It looked like someone had scooped Nina's flesh with a big rock just above the inside of her wrist, he remembered. She didn't have that much flesh to start with. “Partially cleaned. Swelling, minor. Blood loss, moderate. Damage to nerves, tendons or both.”
He placed Nina on the bed. She winced at the light, at the movement. Gasped for air, before the next wave of pain hit her. Gray's fingers pressed down on her shoulders, as much to hold down the girl as to reassure her. Between her teeth, she held a corner of his cloak, twirled into a rope. The man released the clasp at his neck, and stuffed the rest of the cloak under the bed, out of the way.
Under the splints – just vaguely straight sticks tied with rope around Nina's arm – there was a blood-soaked rag as bandage. Under it, there was moss to catch most of the bleeding. A steady trickle gathered as it was removed. Surprisingly, major blood vessels had escaped mostly untouched, although one vein now stood naked and twitching. The main danger, Gray suspected, was below all that. The bone was broken on the thumb-side of the forearm, and he guessed that one of the detached bone fragments was pressing on nerves. Nina's outer fingers felt like their strings had been cut.
Outright severing the arm would have been more deadly. This, a village healer might have just sewn it all together and prayed for the best. Gray knew that if he allowed that, even if Nina survived the blood-poisoning and the fever that followed, she would lose use of her hand. He would not have that. And if this woman could put a hand back together as he'd seen on the little girl in the port, then he needed to rely on her.
He briefly glanced around. Escape route – good. Light – even better. The empty, ordered space calmed him. It reminded him less of the dim, crowded basements of the traditional apothecaries, and more of his torture room1. One had to see what they were doing.
As the strange doctor did her work, Gray worked on calming Nina down. “Listen to the rain,” he whispered. “Imagine the raindrops cold and bright on your skin. What is the sound of a raindrop in the air? Imagine. Follow it up, up.” His voice was low and soft now, like a blanket that swallowed one whole. He made sure he hadn't missed anything urgent. Scrapes and bruises – perhaps a pulled rib muscle from all the tension – nothing that couldn't wait. “Up in the sky, picture a single raindrop. Sunlight strikes it. Picture its colour. Its warmth. Float along with it. Breathe with it as it moves along the breeze. As it starts to descend, imagine its journey through the air. Very, very slowly it falls, because what for us is a breath, for the raindrop is a lifetime. Weightless it falls. As it does, it gathers pieces of the world – a speck of soot, the fragrance of a flower, the reflection of a bird's feather.” Nina closed her eyes. “Follow it as it becomes its own little world.” Nina tensed as Anastasia touched her arm, but her breathing was more regular. “The pain is here, but you are away.” Gray spoke.
He could not hear, but Nina's ticking accompanied his words. It was not the mere rasping of bone or the clicking of teeth, but instead a constant, metallic heartbeat like teasing the edge of a bell with one's fingernail. More than that, Anastasia would discover silvery wires in Nina's flesh that none of Ol' Vulpin's anatomical diagrams had cared to include. These curious things were very thin – some twirled around nerves – but they glinted undoubtedly metallic. One seemed disconnected, and it fizzed and sparkled. It had wrapped against a tiny speck of the forest that no one had ever seen landing in Nina's wound, but which had now grown into a tiny fern fiddlehead that started to unfurl its leaves as light struck it.
Gray stared at the plant growing in his apprentice's flesh with the realization that none of his layered contingency plans allowed for this.
“That's the magic.” He spoke. "Tries to help, but it's gone astray. I can quiet it down for when you need it.”
1That was a compliment.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Apr 13, 2023 6:06:39 GMT -5
Anastasia began readying her tools, but she quickly froze and fixed her mismatched eyes on Gray as he spoke. Normally those allowed in the working rooms only provided mostly useless information, which would normally get a polite but stern request for quiet. Gray’s information actually seemed studied and well presented, giving her the idea that he actually knew what he was talking about as her own observations matched his once Nina was put down.
“I see,” she said as she turned to the table. She reached out a hand to the nurse who placed a pair of medical tongs into it, and she went to work removing the blood soaked rags. “How is her pain tolerance?” she asked once she’d placed the rags in a disposal dish. The nurse then approached with a vial of clear liquid and placed it beside Anastasia. “We are low on pain management. Killers. Alleviators. Not much left from the old world, but I have been given some experimental new world solutions.” She picked up a pipette and pulled some of the liquid up into it. While clear, the smell was a little pungent, and one with the knowledge to recognize it would know it more as a poison. “I have had great results in those willing to try it. In high doses it can be dangerous, but when diluted like this it causes a numbing sensation.” She looked to Gray for a moment, seeking consent to use it.
As she waited and listened for a response, she leaned over to examine the wound, doing some preliminary checks before anything could be applied, but then she stopped. That… didn’t look normal. “Fascinating…” she whispered as her eyes honed in on the strange… metal wiring that sat within her flesh. She didn’t look up as she heard Gray’s explanation for it, and as he spoke her usual grin tugged at her cheeks, growing a little wider. She would need to research this more thoroughly later, if Nina was game.
“I would like to begin,” she finally said as she stood up straight again. “These circumstances the patient is in is fascinating, beyond anything I have seen before. Before I can work, I need to know if this magic is dangerous to be touched, and I would like to know what you mean by ‘quiet it down’, for scientific purposes and my own records.” She then lifted the pipette, still pending his allowance. “Then I can work my own… magic. Hm, no, fun but inappropriate. Medical science. Better.”
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Apr 17, 2023 16:22:59 GMT -5
How much pain could Nina endure?
“More than she knows.” Gray replied.
People could always endure more than they realized. It was often up to Gray to show them. He had not trained Nina in the way he himself had been taught. This would be a good opportunity. She showed promise with self-suggestion. He looked down, as the girl's features were beginning to relax. Should she fail, he would be there to hold her down as the doctor pieced her arm back together.
Or he could let the doctor give Nina painkillers.
Gray sniffed. 'Datura?' he mouthed, as the clear vial finally came into view. He wondered whether the doctor was suspecting that he had caused Nina's injury. Testing him. Poison, or pain, he debated.
If Nina died due to an overdose...A known risk, he thought. Just the sort of advice that he would have given Empress Naoki to deal with a troublesome element who disregarded her authority, had he been advising the monarch.
He nodded his approval to the poison. A known risk.
“If you're reaching this far, I might be able to help with plants later,” he spoke.
Gray was always trying to mitigate risks.
“I will need boiling water, or fire.” He explained. “This magic is close to pure life-force.” Finely-woven, but weak. The most it could probably do was grow a hairy wart. Yet even that could not be allowed, for startling the doctor might mean nerves severed. Anastasia was a curious one – too curious, he felt. Yet that could be forgiven in exchange for competence. “Clean gloves, non-magical metal implements, touching the side of the wire, not the end - should render it harmless.” He though back of a time where he could have done the operation himself. When he had done so. “But just to make sure, I will block the magic temporarily. With my sword.” He reached up; hesitated; then pulled down not only the sword slung across his back, together with the sheath and belt carrying it; not drawing the blade as much as letting the sheath slip past it. “If you could connect the wire with its other end, that should have it back under control. Might need a small flame. It looks like this was the string going along the nerve – here -,” he slipped his sleeve down, pointing the area on his own skin, “-between the third and second branches of the main nerve.” He frowned. “But I cannot figure out where the other end is right now.”
“I can.”
Nina's voice was soft as the down of a bird with wings broken.
Gray whispered something.
“ 't's like tryin' t' roll ba' me eyes in me head.” The patient complained. Shut her eyes tight. “A place wher' bone splits in three. A shard tha' juts out lika fang.” A shudder went past her shoulders, and the movement triggered the pain. “Theres holes in bone.” She gasped. The honeycomb-like structures that surrounded her mind's eye made her swallow sourly. She thought of bugs, of rotten wood, so frail that it would fold like paper under the weight of her flesh. “Not feeling well.”
“Enough. Good.” Gray told her. “Sink,” and she was gone again.
As she moved away from her pain, the girl looked straight at Anastasia and whispered.
“Sh's nottachua livul pin.”
Gray raised his eyebrows. How curious.
Using what was available, he cleaned the tip of his long, one-and-a-half executioner blade. Then, with one hand guiding the blade, he brought Everything Ends Here closer, until the cold metal touched flesh. The sparking metal wire fizzled out. The fern stopped growing. Just like Nina, Gray thought, to not see it, and instead be terrified by what he assumed to be be normal bone structure.
He stepped back. A quiet shadow, he would occasionally comment on the paths of the wires.
He looked forward to Anastasia's art.
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Anastasia Vulpin
Committed
Roleplay posts: 60
Appearance: Anastasia is a curious case. Not much is known of who she used to be, or even how much of her body is the original owner’s, or even human, as she had been remade and rebuilt by one Doctor Vulpin after finding her shattered remains. Thankfully the good doctor had the sense to replace and rebuild her former, broken body with parts from other women, instead of mixing and matching with whatever or whoever was convenient.
The doctor, however, did not take much stock in the tones of each part, which left Anastasia with a variable palette of skin tones. Each replacement part, bordered by a myriad of stitches, sports the colour of their original owner, from the palest to the darkest skinned individual, to a handful of more colourful tones, such as blue and green from the doctor’s non-human stock.
Though patchwork, the doctor seemed to have a good eye, as Anastasia could be considered good looking, if one could look past all the stitches and patches of mismatched skin. Though hidden behind a mask most of the time, she sports defined features, from carefully chosen cheekbones, a smaller nose, and a well shaped jaw line. Her mouth is split down the middle, and often pulled into a big, long grin, showing off a set of pearly whites. Thankfully, Vulpin had the sense to make these parts match, except for one of Anastasia’s canines, that looks far longer than her others.
As the finishing touch on her face, her eyes are ironically full of life, even if one is blue and the other green, at least one belonging to someone else before it was gifted to Anastasia.
She has a limber, athletic build, one built for the ease of efficient movement, and it allows the patchwork woman to climb, crawl, and otherwise move with grace, not unlike a circus acrobat.
Her body is also home to a great number of secrets. On the outside, she seems fairly straight forward, she looks like any other human just with different coloured skin across her body. The doctor needed more than just a regular old human though, which has lended itself to several changes in her body’s build. Her fingers, for instance, seem normal when in gloves, but each of her fingers is able to split in two, effectively giving her ten digits on either hand.
As for her clothing, she wears whatever she can get her hands on or whatever Vulpin gives her. Her favourite outfit however, is one of many colours, not unlike herself. The outfit must have belonged to a circus at one point, as the top left her arms and shoulders exposed, and only really covered her chest and the sides of her neck. The material over one side of her chest is a rich purple, and the other side a deep gold, all complete with green stitching all the way around.
Her bottoms starts half way up her abdomen, the almost-corset like midsection is made up of a multi colored diamond shaped checkerboard that ends just past her rear, trimmed with little golden fronds. The legs are made up of several long strips of purple and gold material that bloom at the middle, and connect back together half way up her shin, and finally she wears a matching pair of boots.
Finally, her mask was gifted to her by Doctor Vulpin, though unlike his it ends half way down her face, and consists of a pair of feminine eye-holes and a long beak at her nose. Perhaps its his way of showing off his handiwork.
Equipment: Anastasia was remade for the purpose of assisting Doctor Vulpin in whatever it is he needed done, mostly around his surgery. She is usually equipped with tools given to her by the Doctor, such as knives, a bone saw, dental pliers, whatever she needs at the time.
She does, however, own a fairly ornate knife, one that she hides among the baggy strips that make up her trousers. This wasn’t given to her by the Doctor, however, instead its one she found while walking the beaches. The way the blade shone in the sunlight made it seem so pretty, so the patchwork woman decided to keep it.
Skills and Abilities: Anastasia has many skills gifted to her by her father, Doctor Vulpin. Most notably she is a skilled surgeon, not only because of Vulpin’s teachings, but also her fascination of what makes a body tick, as well as how to preserve parts of that body once it has stopped ticking.
Her rebuild and construction has left her limber and agile, a conscious choice by the Doctor, which has given her exceptional ease of movement and flexibility. As a result, her movements are quite graceful and with purpose, not unlike that of a circus gymnast.
Her additions at the hand of the Doctor each serve their own purpose as well, such as her extra fingers for greater dexterity while using tools.
Since her body is also made up of spare parts, those parts are highly replaceable, leaving her with an exceptional endurance. Those parts that do break can either be fixed or replaced. Some might think that with her constructed nature that she can’t necessarily feel pain, especially considering she doesn’t have much of an adverse reaction to such things, but that’s not the case. She can most certainly feel, but instead of being adverse to pain, she is fascinated by it, much like every other sensation she feels across her borrowed skin and muscle.
Allegiances: Doctor Vulpin
Registered: May 21, 2021 21:19:25 GMT -5
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Post by Anastasia Vulpin on Apr 20, 2023 17:03:28 GMT -5
At his nod, she began her work. With the syringe in hand, she looked her patient over, her blue and green eyes darting over her body as she silently mouths something to herself. “Fifty five… One seven… five…” She let that linger for a moment in her mind, then nodded and stood straight once more. She inspected the syringe for a moment then carefully dropped the liquid around Nina’s wound, but she was careful to use the exact dosage as she stopped with half of the vial still full.
If all had gone correctly, which it should have, Nina would likely feel a coldness pass over the wound, then it would start to dissipate, followed by a numbness that reduced the pain to a dull throb.
“An apothecary? Herbalist?” Doctor Vulpin asked as she put the syringe down and stepped back. “If you understand this land, then yes. Absolutely. Certainly. My sources are limited, anything to extend my stocks without spending old world medicine.” Any chance she got to examine and test new medicines and mixtures made from resources native to the island she would jump on, without hesitation. The Av’Rae who lived on the outskirts in the forests was useful, yes, but even she was limited in production. That wasn’t the time, however.
She extended her gloved hand to the nurse nearby as Gray explained what he required, and the nurse was quick to gather the flame in question, a specific strand of long wood that she lit from the lamp overhead.
As she did so, Stasia reached towards the wire with a pair of medical tongs and gently shifted the wire and placed it in the indicated spot, still unsure of what it did, but choosing not to question it. There was a lot of trust being given in that room, but if Gray were not trustworthy he would not have brought the patient there, surely. The nurse reached forward and placed the flame where Gray had indicated, then pulled back and extinguished it for safety.
Anastasia quickly snapped her attention to Nina as she spoke and listened to the riddle she was given. She didn’t catch the last piece, but her mind raced to understand the rest as she couldn’t ask further questions. Still, as her mind thought, she watched Gray complete his ritual, then marvelled as the fern stopped growing. “Fascinating…”
Finally, the doctor could go to work. With her tongs, she reached in and gently removed the fern and took a moment to examine it. “Removing foreign object… fascinating… nurse, save this, I wish to plant it.” She passed it off to the nurse then looked back to the wound.
Then she took off her gloves, revealing each strange finger being made of several other people’s flesh, much like the rest of her, but then something even stranger happened. Each finger split in two and moved independently of one other, completely by design. With that, she went back to work, using her clean, absurdly digited hand to shift flesh and examine the wound. Each finger seemed to have a job, holding this, pulling that, examining those, generally making it far easier for the doctor to work.
“All debris removed…” she quietly remarked as the last, tiny piece of tree bark plinked into the waiting disposal dish. “Proceeding with… the wire…” with two halves of a finger she plucked the dispelled wire and started examining the wound to find where it came from. Judging by the length, the amount of fraying, and its general elasticity, she soon traced a line up Nina’s arm and used her trusty scalpel to make a thin incision the five centimetres needed. Her grin tightened behind her mask as she spotted the other end of the wire as the flesh opened between two more fingers.
“I have found the wire,” she commented. “Reconnecting…”
With dexterous fingers she steadied the new section of wire and in her other hand pulled the first towards it. It had a consistency she somewhat expected and had the tools ready to graft them back together, but as she touched the wires together a spark ignited from each end, reconnecting the two pieces, but instead of jumping in surprise, Anastasia stood stock still, completely frozen, all except for her eyes which began to move erratically.
Anastasia’s mind was reeling. Images flashed before her, followed by familiar feelings and words that echoed through her head. The conscious part of her mind reached out, looking for an explanation.
Things started to play out before her eyes. Her own hand… no, a light skinned hand reached out as if it were hers to pull back a velvet curtain. The air smelled artificially sweet, but also had a tinge of something slightly more… erotic. Behind the curtain stood a man in partial undress, looking very excited to see her indeed, and he quickly produced a bag of coins.
The sensation quickly faded and was replaced with another, this time her arms were far darker and they pulled on a rope alongside three others. Her eyes cast up to the winch above as a large batch of crates swung overhead and onto a ship. Shouts and orders rang out around her, and the calls of seagulls filled the gaps.
Then another. This time the hands were completely blue and she could only see down one eye as she looked down the shaft of an arrow, aimed at a large buck. She could feel the tensing of her arms, the steadiness of legs that didn’t quite feel right to her, and the straightness of her back before the arrow loosed from the bow she held.
Memories. These must be… memories…
More played out before her. A celebration with glasses of sparkling liquids raised high. A warrior fighting in the middle of a large battle. Someone cresting a mountain to regard the spectacular view from the peak, looking out over the world. Fording a river alongside a massive oxen. A moment of passionate lovemaking. The overwhelming joy from reading a letter in a language that for a moment Anastasia did not understand, then suddenly did. Then the overwhelming sadness of loss as she held the dying hand of a loved one. All these memories flooded over in what felt like real time, but it was only an instant.
They all faded and quieted as the real world pulled back into focus. She felt… strange. Very strange. “...fascinating…” she whispered as she blinked the last of the memories away. She looked to her hands, then over her arms. They were still a patchwork of different pieces, salvaged carefully by her father. “Memories…” She… must have just experienced the memories of those she was built from. Their hopes and dreams, triumphs and defeats. She felt fractured, yet whole at the same time, then something caught her eye. She looked closely along the seam of a patch of light skin that connected to a section of pale blue. The scarring of her stitching seemed healed in places. “Troubling…”
She took a deep breath and looked back at the wound in question. She had a job to do. “Apologies. The magic seemed to have had an… affect on me. It has passed. Over. Gone. Hm.”
She took a long moment to examine the wire and found that the magic had also reattached it completely. “Reattachment complete. Repairing the damaged tissue.” Then came the hard, time intensive part. The doctor carefully put things back where they were meant to be. First ligaments were reattached, nerves were realigned and untangled, flesh salvaged and shifted, and what she could not salvage was simply replaced from preserved samples that seemed to fit perfectly.
Over three hours had passed since the operation had begun, and her work was diligent and methodical. She did not let anything distract her as her keen eyes traced every single piece inside Nina’s wrist, and her bizarre fingers did their work like a potter at their wheel. She truly was a flesh sculptor, far beyond a surgeon.
Finally, the woman started to stitch up the repaired wound with one thin line of stitches. “She will heal quickly,” she finally said as she stitched, speaking the first words in over an hour. “The salvaged flesh will ache, and the replaced flesh will remain numb for a time, but it will all fade. Dissipate. Return to normal.” She cut the line and placed the needle in the tray. “As good as new.”
She stepped back towards the sink and poured water into the basin from a judge as her nurse cleaned Nina’s wrist and the work area around them. Anastasia washed her hands with a series of soaps procured from the island, then she looked to Gray.
“Your friend fascinates me,” She commented, slipping her gloves back on and clasping them behind her back. Though bloodied and macabre from both the operation and her nature, she still had a bizarre grace about her. “Are you her guardian? If so I must ask, should the patient ever have the misfortune of death, I would like to perform the autopsy. The magic within her wires… fascinates me. Strangely so.” She pulled her hand forward and looked it over. Though gloved, the tens, or perhaps hundreds of hands she had seen flick through her mind all appeared before her in a rainbow of colours, shapes, sizes, and even races. “I have never felt that so strongly before…” It was true, in the past she has had flashes of memories while doing certain things, but never that many, and never that clearly.
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