Something Sinister Slumbers in the Sands of Sargon
Welcome to Arknights: Something Sinister Slumbers in the Sands of Sargon, or Arknights: 5S for short. In this RP, you will be playing as elite Rhodes Island operators or external affiliates/partners of Rhodes Island (Original Characters only). The events of this RP will take place at an unspecified time in the near future of the current Arknights storyline. Inspirations for this RP include the Indiana Jones franchise and the Stationary Security Service (SSS) gameplay mode in Arknights where you keep going deeper and deeper. The RP will take place mostly in Sargon, but Sargon is a great land with many features, from deserts to rainforests, and even Durin underground cities.
I chose Sargon because, for the time being, not a great deal has been provided as far as canonical lore, allowing me to take some liberties. The RP will start off on the premise that one of the Lord Ameers of Sargon has agreed to a business deal with Rhodes Island, buying RI's oripathy medication and allowing the opening of a local RI branch office. But not all is well in Sargon, foreign powers lust greedily for the hidden wealth of Sargon's ancient civilization and will stop at nothing to unearth horrors best left buried. A serendipitous discovery will lead to a wild race for forbidden power and it will be up to you to prevent the worst case scenario.
So prepare your equipment modules and say goodbye to the landship, it's going to be a dangerous ride.
And for those of you who are interested, but don't know what Arknights is, Arknights is a popular gatcha tower defense mobile game with surprisingly deep worldbuilding and lore. The world of Terra is inhabited by anime animal people who live in nations reflective of the nations that exist in the real world. The world has a mix of pre-modern and near-future technology. The world is defined by the super-material Originium, which is used in all forms of modern technology as a source of power, and is used to channel Originium Arts, this world's sci-fi magic. However, Originium, as a mineral, can grow, shift, or turn into dust and spread around. This movement of Originium causes various natural disasters called Catastrophes, but worst of all, it is possible to be infected by Originium, resulting in contracting a disease known as Oripathy. Those who have contracted Oripathy are referred to as the Infected, and are shunned by society. Oripathy is a death sentence, shortening the Infected's lifespan, however it also boosts one's ability to cast Originium Arts without the need for an Originium device. Because of the Catastrophes that Originium can bring, the people of the world have developed Mobile Cities, turning their cities into gigantic collections of mobile landships, allowing them to preserve their infrastructure while moving away from impending Catastrophes. Most major civilization centers are on the Mobile Cities, though there are poor villages and nomads that wander the wasteland that just take their chances. The world also seems to be inhabited by various mysterious, god-like entities that work from the shadows and manipulate people's lives. One such entity has taken over the entire ocean, making it extremely dangerous for normal people. There is also the mystery of what Originium is, the existence of ancient technology, a possible precursor civilization, and something to do with space travel.
Much of the canonical Arknights story revolves around the Infected fighting for their rights, cities trying to avoid catastrophe, societal upheaval, the conflict between the rich and the poor, the history of war between nations, the looming inevitability of another major war, and fighting against or resisting the influence of the afore-mentioned god-like entities, especially the one in the ocean.
Here are two wikis to browse if you have questions, but I am also open to answering anything to the best of my abilities.
There is a lot of lore that I will not be touching on; there are many stories in Arknights and the world of Terra, and I am just carving out a tiny chunk of it. As mentioned above, this RP will take place primarily in Sargon which you can read up on in the link. Suffice to say, Sargon is inspired, for the most part on the Middle East, North Africa, and strangely enough, the Aztec Empire. The Rhodes Island I mentioned previously is the protagonist group of Arknights, a 'pharmaceutical company' comprised of a single landship that functions like a paramilitary corporation. Their purpose is to do research to cure Oripathy, but also to resolve conflicts surrounding the infected. They generally treat infected better than the rest of the world and hire both infected and non-infected. They also partner with other nations and companies, so your character does not have to be from Rhodes Island.
Below I am providing an empty character sheet template. I have colored segments with the color code: FFFFFF, so you can simply do a find and replace of FFFFFF with your color hex code of choice. Please also replace or delete everything in triangular brackets <>. I hope it's clear which you should replace and which you should get rid of entirely. I hope the CS is not too complicated.
For the clinical analysis stats, the ratings are as follows: Defective, Flawed, Normal, Standard, Excellent, Outstanding, and N/A. I generally won't restrict this, but if you want a range, if we assign defective to 0, Flawed to 1, Normal to 2, ... and N/A to 6, the strongest operators generally have around 20-25 points total. N/A, the highest rank (meaning unmeasurable) is extremely rare, and characters who have it only have one stat rated at N/A and will have another stat that is Flawed or lower. Normal is what a normal civilian is capable of, Standard is what a standard combatant should be capable of. These ultimately don't matter, they are just to give your character flavor, but I know there are people who probably care about stuff like this, which is why I'm including these measurements here. My example character (an NPC) only goes up to 18, and there are 6-star characters (the rarest and strongest playable characters in the game) whose total rating adds up to less than 20. Ultimately, your character can be strong because of their equipment or skills and not necessarily because of their raw stats.
<Operator Name>
<Onboarding quote>
★★★★★★
Operator Profile
_______________________________________ Codename: <Operator Name> Epithet: <Nicknames or titles>
<You can copy existing operator infection descriptions or customize>
Cell-Originium Assimilation: <Some percent #. Check canon operators to determine what reasonably reflects the severity (or lack thereof) of your character's infection> Blood Originium-Crystal Density: <Some decimal # with units of u/L. Check canon operators to determine what reasonably reflects the severity (or lack thereof) of your character's infection>
Character Synopsis:
<Short character description>
Personality:
<Describe your character's personality, how they think, what they feel, etc.>
Talents
Talent Description
<Talent 1 Name>
<Talent 1 description>
<Talent 2 Name>
<Talent 2 description>
Skills
Skill Description
<Skill 1 Name>
<Skill 1 description>
<Skill 2 Name>
<Skill 2 description>
<Skill 3 Name>
<Skill 3 description>
Equipment Module
<Equipment 1>: <Equipment 1 description>
<Equipment 2>: <Equipment 2 description. Make this list as long as you like>
Operator Archives
<Split your backstory into 4 parts, this is part 1>
<Split your backstory into 4 parts, this is part 2>
<Split your backstory into 4 parts, this is part 3>
<Split your backstory into 4 parts, this is part 4>
Trivia:
<Feel free to add whatever to this list, Theme Song, Voice Actor, Additional images, Character inspiration, health and habits, puns and easter eggs, Additional Quote, etc.>
Below is an OC NPC following this template to use as an example for how the completed template should look.
Jericho
“Dr. Kal’tsit, I have come to answer the call. What? Late? Well, you’re not wrong. I didn’t believe in you back then. What changed my mind? Desperation and a desire for absolution.”
★★★★★★
Operator Profile
_______________________________________ Codename: Jericho Epithet: The Lonely Orchestra
Class: Defender Branch: Arts Protector
Race: Aegir Affiliations: Columbia
Height: 220cm Weight: 140kg
Place of Birth: Sargon Date of Birth: February 20
Gender: Male
Combat Experience: 10 years
Clinical Analysis
______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Normal Endurance: Excellent Mobility: Flawed Arts Adaptability: Outstanding Combat Skill: Normal Tactical Acumen: Excellent
Infection Status: Infected
Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected, with the clear exception of Originium nodules localized to the throat. Throat nodules are responsible for the rough, gravelly timbre of the operator's natural voice. The operator can change his voice using arts, but that is not recommended as this may exacerbate the growth of the nodules. At this time, this operator is confirmed to be infected.
A retired weapon designer and war profiteer seeking atonement and a chance to reconnect with his spiritual roots.
Personality:
Jericho is the kind of person who talks to distract himself from things he’d rather not think about. This makes him come off as friendly, knowledgeable, and oftentimes, even a little arrogant. Despite how much of a risk it is to seek employment with Rhodes Island, Jericho is actually rather risk-averse, preferring careful planning to reckless operations. Despite having a difficult childhood, life in Columbia and success in his field have made Jericho accustomed to luxury and comfort, and can become irritable when denied these things.
Above all, Jericho is introspective and spiritual. He recognizes the harm his work has caused and seeks atonement. And having sought science his whole life and divorcing himself from his ‘backwards’ ancestry, he has now turned his thoughts towards seeking a higher power through the hidden traditions of his fathers. However, he keeps his quiet moments to himself so as not to betray his cheerful facade.
Business in Columbia has numbed Jericho’s ability to empathize with the less fortunate or those of lower position. He therefore has the unfortunate tendency to fall back into looking at everything as numbers, as assets (a habit from his research days), and is trying very hard to connect with those who may be risking their lives or caught in the collateral of their work so as not to view anyone as expendable.
Talents
Talent Description
Sound Engineer
Jericho is a professionally trained engineer who had previously worked for a successful Columbian weapons technology company. He has deep insight when it comes to electronics, particularly speakers and microphones, and understands the wave functions necessary to drive them.
His understanding of cymatics means that he can tune his equipment to alter the local sonic environment to resonate with his allies’ sound-based abilities, boosting their efficacy. He can also identify a material’s resonant frequency after successive strikes, allowing him to use that frequency to shatter his opponents’ equipment.
Organized Discipline
Jericho has professional experience leading a team of fellow engineers, and the main thing he learned was to always stay organized and to document everything. Jericho thus lacks the disorganized eccentricity of ‘mad scientists’-types like Closure, focusing on cost-benefit analysis, resource availability, and setting realistic, achievable goals rather than hare-brained schemes and risky hypotheses. This allows Jericho to be a master of infrastructure, setting a foundation from which more audacious moves can be made by his more daring colleagues. Jericho is observant, analytical, and methodical, and applies these skills to the upkeep of Rhodes Island, as well as to his combat strategies.
Skills
Skill Description
Sound-Based Originium Arts
Operator Jericho possesses special Originium Arts with the affinity of sound and vibrations. This is likely due to his Aegirian ancestry. His father was apparently an Emergency Aid Building technician in Iberia, and it seems Jericho took an interest in the science of sound at an early age, and pursued it throughout his education.
With his arts, Jericho is able to mimic voices and sounds, perform uncanny feats of ventriloquism, and amplify the power and intensity of sounds and vibrations. He can even release echolocation pings to navigate in darkness or locate stealthed objects. This also implies that he has unnaturally good hearing.
Surveillance and Misdirection
Selim has designed a 'noisy cricket' drone with intricate sound equipment, capable of detecting and emitting all types of sounds. This allows the drone to operate as threat detection, surveillance, and scouting by running sonar sweeps, as well as aid in civilian evacuation or team communication procedures through making announcements. It can also be used to divert or distract threats by causing sounds to get enemies' attention.
The drone can also harmonize with Selim's sound based attacks, enhancing the damage Selim does to enemies around the drone's location.
Cymatic Barrier
Selim activates his shield, which projects a 3-meter wide wall of sound in front of him. Enemies that try to pass through start having their internals vibrated rapidly, receiving arts damage and defense debuffs (similar to corrosion). The pain is such a deterrent that most people's first instinct is to move out of and away from the wall as fast as possible. This is a technology referred to as an Active Denial System.
Equipment Module
Armor: Sound system built into armor, including sonar readouts.
LRAD Shield (Israfil): Sound system built into shield, including Active Denial System. LRAD stands for long-range acoustic device.
Vibro-Blade (Tuning Fork): Vibrates at adjustable frequencies, detects the sound produced when it strikes another object. Sound data is fed back into the armor to determine resonant harmonic frequency of the object being struck, allowing the frequency to be used to further weaken the object on further application.
Drone (Noisy Cricket): A drone that flies around and makes noise or detects sounds.
Operator Archives
Selim’s family lived a simple life in Sargon, but infighting between the Lord Ameers and the Columbian corporations that sought to profit from the conflict forced them to evacuate to Iberia. Music was prevalent in Selim’s family. Back in Sargon, he remembered that his parents often had these little tunes and melodies in a foreign language for every little thing. It came as no surprise that Selim became musically inclined, especially singing and voice manipulation, and he demonstrated, from a young age, a knack for sound-based originium arts. He would often play pranks on his friends, pretending to be other people, or tricking them into thinking he was elsewhere by throwing his voice. He learned that he could take hold of the family radio and manipulate the sound coming from it by affecting the arts unit within using his own arts. However, in Iberia, one time Selim had been overheard singing the songs of his parents, which prompted a sudden visit to their house from an inquisitor. Fortunately the inquisitor was merciful, but the warning was apparent, and Selim’s parents stopped singing after that, and encouraged him to follow suit.
In Iberia, Selim’s father became an Emergency Aid Building technician. Selim learned that his family was originally from Iberia, but that they had left for Sargon due to not wanting to live somewhere where the Sankta religion was so prevalent, but it was never fully explained why to Selim, and they eventually returned to Iberia anyways when the instability in Sargon became too great. Taking an interest in his father’s work, Selim sought to become an engineer as well, which was highly encouraged as it could lead to financial success and wealth. Selim’s ambitions led him to Columbia, where he received his education, and began working for a company that developed ‘non-lethal’ weapons, a great place to apply his knowledge of sound. Selim swiftly climbed the ranks as someone who was willing to put his morals aside for personal gain, and it didn’t phase him when the weapons he helped develop were tested in his homeland of Sargon, and later deployed by heavily militarized police forces to suppress the poor and infected.
Selim’s company had a flair for the dramatic, and pushed for sensational demonstrations of their technology that bordered on dangerous. When it came to his inventions, Selim only trusted himself to really sell their capabilities to the customer, so he trained with the weapons and armor he developed in order to pull off amazing stunts that would ‘wow’ their clients, such as stopping a charging burdenbeast in its tracks using only the sound emitted from his shield. Due to the nature of his inventions, Selim became a liaison to the police departments of various Columbian cities. To better cater his inventions towards their needs, he needed to understand their combat style as well as the tactics they employed when it came to ‘pacifying dissidents’. Therefore, he received training from the police, not only in combat, but particularly in defensive tactics, since police primarily fought from, and held, advantageous positions. Thanks to his impressive physique, he even sometimes took commissions and served his clients as a mercenary on some of their operations as an extreme version of a tech demo and weapons testing run. This even got to the point where he was recommended to the Columbian military, and Selim did a short tour in his homeland of Sargon. He should have felt something, but the allure of dangerous knowledge and the indulgence in luxuries and creature comforts had blinded him to where his profits were coming from and the people that were harmed in his pursuit of riches.
Early in Selim’s career, Dr. Kal’tsit was making the rounds in Columbia, looking for support and for capable people to recruit. Selim had scoffed at her proposals and dismissed her outright. However, decades later, it came to light that the company that Selim worked for had been carrying out unethical experimentation and acting like a paramilitary organization. While this was not unusual for Columbian companies, the scandal got too big to contain, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Arts Units and Originium had to shut down the company to maintain public order and quell further investigations which could implicate the politicians involved. Selim was blacklisted and unable to find employment at any of the other major notable tech companies. He also realized that he had gotten infected from working closely with originium devices; the company had cut corners when it came to safety equipment. Having dedicated his life to corporate greed, he returned to Iberia a broken man. At the very least, he had sent money home so that his parents could live comfortable lives. In his retirement, Selim’s father had dedicated himself to translating some ancient Aegir scriptures. Seeing his son in this aimless state, he handed the translated book to Selim and urged him to read it. Selim was struck with a sudden sense of purpose, and spent a long time reconnecting with his family, learning about his people’s history, their beliefs, and the effect that imperial forces had on their way of life. He remembered Kal’tsit’s visit and her impossible, unprofitable dream. Seeking atonement and a chance to actually do something good with what remained of his life, he sought out Rhodes Island.
Trivia:
Theme:
Voice Actor:
Additional images:
Selim is an Aegir based on a whale, hence the sound-based abilities
Since Jericho’s infection is almost exclusively localized to his throat, he is trying an experimental treatment in which he inhales warm, aerosolized infection suppression medication on a regular basis through a device that resembles an E-Cig
Canonically, the Aegir are oppressed in Iberia, so I based Selim’s ‘lost culture’ on one of the many groups of people who were oppressed by the Spanish Inquisition, Muslims. I imply that Selim believes in a religion other than the Sankta religion, though he is reluctant to share any further details.
Selim's last name, “Yunus”, is the Arabic equivalent of Jonah, the prophet who was swallowed by a whale in the Abrahamic faiths.
Additional Quote: “Some scientists theorize that all matter is just vibrating ‘strings’. So in a way, God really did ‘sing’ the world into existence.”
"Rhodes Island, I'd like to extend the deepest of gratitude to you and request the privilege to join you as an Operator. Wha--? Code name? Um...I guess...Ash Girl will do."
★★★★★★
Operator Profile
_______________________________________ Codename: Ash Girl Epithet: The Taran Pariah
Class: Guard Branch: Arts Fighter
Race: Vouivre Affiliations: Dublinn (formerly)
Height: 173 cm Weight: 75 kg
Place of Birth: Post-annexation Tara Date of Birth: January 1
Gender: Female
Combat Experience: 10 years
Clinical Analysis
______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Excellent Endurance: Excellent Mobility: Standard Arts Adaptability: Outstanding Combat Skill: Excellent Tactical Acumen: Normal
Infection Status: Infected
Imaging tests show blurry outlines of subject's internal organs, with multiple dark inclusions. Her circulatory system shows an alarming degree of originium particulate matter. Through these criteria we can determine that this subject is infected.
Cell-Originium Assimilation: 28%. Multiple crystal lesions visible on the subject's skin. Blood Originium-Crystal Density: 0.32 u/L. Miss Aoife's condition is extremely aggressive and severe, and her prognosis is poor. Unless measures can be found to more effectively delay the progression of her infection, she likely has less than six months to live, if that.
Character Synopsis:
A former noblewoman and former revolutionary, forced from both of her homes and set adrift.
Personality:
Aoife tends to be a bit quiet most of the time, and when she speaks, she often sounds slightly strained and uncomfortable--almost stilted, sometimes--like she dislikes talking, and so people assume that she wishes to be left alone. Not so, actually; she is quiet and strained because her aggressive oripathy causes her a not-inconsiderable amount of pain on a constant basis. Rather, Aoife tends to be quite personable, if not entirely skilled in social situations, as she hasn't had a surfeit of healthy interactions, and enjoys being around and talking to other people as long as she's not the one doing most of the talking.
Though it's been a long time since her privileged and sheltered upbringing and she barely remembers a single piece of it, it still reflects on her character to this day. Chief among those reflections is how narrow her view of the world can be. She can be closed-minded, and has a tendency to discount things she hears that she doesn't want to. She knows this very well and actively works against it, but it's a trap that is all to easy for her to fall in when she's put under stress. The other major effect is, as mentioned, Aoife can have trouble relating to other people. Spending her very early life in the noblewoman bubble and a huge chunk as a (largely expendable) soldier has limited the people she's been able to open up to, and so she can have difficulties forming genuine friendships.
But despite all of that, Aoife is a good person at heart. Despite how she may look on occasion, she's not selfish, standoffish, willfully ignorant, or egocentric, and joined Rhodes Island as much to fulfil the duties of an Operator and help others as to be treated for her own oripathy. The fact that she's willing to endanger herself by pushing her Arts even when she reasonably shouldn't in the service of her work should be proof enough that she really is trying her best. It can just...be hard to see that sometimes.
Talents
Talent Description
Taran Swordsmanship
Brought up from a young age to be a noblewoman of Tara, Aoife Eóganachta of course learned the former kingdom's traditional style of swordplay from a young age.
Though of course it wasn't intended to be actually used, not in the way she uses it now--it was entirely ceremonial to begin with--it has certainly come in handy as she became first a member of Dublinn, and then an Operator of Rhodes Island. The principle reason this is so effective is that she efficiently leverages her rather strange, almost dancelike, style quite effectively. Because most people aren't familiar with the Taran style--it's not extinct, but it's nearly so--it makes her rather unpredictable and hard to read, letting her get the drop on opponents before they're able to adapt.
Pariah's Oath
Aoife has gone through a great deal of pain in her life, whether it be physical or emotional in nature. Even now, her remarkably severe infection causes her not-inconsiderable suffering every minute of the day. There are many times that she's wanted to just...give up. To let it end already, to take the coward's way out, whether that be letting the heritage of Tara die, turning herself in to Victoria, or hurling herself from the landship. But because she hasn't, she's developed an astounding level of willpower, able to push through constant physical pain, emotional torment, and any number of roadblocks. She is going to get to where she's going, and good luck to anybody that tries to stand in her way.
Skills
Skill Description
Winter's Breath
Aoife's arts, channeled through her sword, are of a particularly unique variety. While they generally take the form of ice, they actually involve directly arresting molecular motion. Though it may have the same overall effect most of the time, when trying to freeze objects that are typically coldproof it shows its use in being remarkably good at freezing them anyway.
Through spectroscopic measurement techniques, the peak of her freezing power has been measured between 170 and 175 degrees Kelvin (-103C and -98C, respectively).
Bitterwinter Bite
Though obviously the sword is a heavy part of her combat kit, the freezing power that Aoife possesses is used through more than just the sword. Given her powerful infection, she is able to channel her Arts naturally, of course, and is able to do so with a startling degree of intensity. Though they don't have much of a range to them--remember, not actually ice but manipulation on the molecular level which I am to understand gets exponentially more difficult past ten or so feet--within that limited range you are at constant risk of being both slowed to a crawl and frozen solid. Despite this obvious strength, however, subject has been heavily advised against using this more than necessary, as it seems to exacerbate her condition.
One Thousand Shining Teeth
Finally, we come to likely the most dangerous application of her Arts that Aoife can muster--both towards her enemies and towards herself through increased progression of her oripathy. When her life is on the line, though, anything is fair game. Through judicious application of her arts, everything around her is so molecularly strained that it becomes incrediby delicate, even metal and stone. With a sufficiently hard strike, they can shatter into storms of razorlike shards, serving almost like a shotgun; spraying out a surprising level of devastation.
All that being said, this is not without further drawbacks. Principally, that she isn't necessarily immunte to the shards, nor does she have exclusive rights on shattering them. Still, if it's leveraged right, it is truly, truly a menace.
Equipment Module
\
Claíomh-na-Samhain - The Sword of Samhain: Aoife's bastard sword, forever and always by her side. Reclaimed from the ashes of her family home, this previously ceremonial blade has been turned into both a superb arts conductor and a vicious weapon of war.
Operator Archives
The Eóganachta clan is a very old Taran family, going back far into when it was a kingdom of its own and nearly passing into myth in their own right. Consequently, even in the new, Victorian Tara, they occupied positions of power and privilege that would be the envy of any native Victorian noble, let alone those Tarans unfortunate enough to not have enormous family fortunes and a huge manor to retreat into. It was into this incredibly privileged upbringing that their youngest daughter of three, Aoife, was born. Her two elder sisters Siobhan and Bronagh had enough years separating them from her that they were less siblings, and more auxiliary parents. And so Aoife grew up coddled and spoilt, doted on by four separate different sources. It was an idyllic childhood, and she didn't spare a thought to look outside of the manor grounds.
But all that changed when Aoife was more or less seven years old, when a rumor spread among the Tarans--whether true or not, nobody knows to this day--that the Eóganachta clan had sold out to Victoria.
And that was the only match that the powder keg needed to ignite.
In a single, brutally violent night, the entire Eóganachta estate was razed to the ground, and Aoife's parents were both killed, along with Bronagh and Siobhan. Aoife--scared, confused, and unable to understand what was happening--was pulled from the ashes of everything that she knew and thrust into the arms of a disorganized group of Taran malcontents. Perhaps if she'd been a little older, she would've been killed. But...
...Perhaps she also would've been able to hold on to herself a little bit better.
Within the disdainful Tarans, Aoife Eóganachta became...nothing. They refused to even use her name, refused to let her be Aoife Eóganachta. Just...You. Or Vouivre. And other things, of course, until eventually she the name stuck: Ash Girl. But never again Aoife, and certainly never Eóganachta. No name.
Until she forgot it on her own.
For the next few years, she lived as something like a daughter, and something like a servant. She wasn't quite one, yet wasn't fully the other either. And after a year? Two years? Ash Girl had become her name. She barely remembered even the faintest fragments of her former life, and almost nothing at all of her old home. But still, she was...harmless. And, in turn, in no danger of harm.
But that all came to an end when Ash Girl was eleven years old.
The Taran malcontents--as a whole--were trending to more militant, and more violent. And when she was eleven years old...
Dublinn was born.
It took the Tarans by storm, and Ash Girl with them. She was still a child the first time a sword was shoved into her delicate hands. A scant year of training, and before her thirteenth birthday she was being involved in warfare.
She fought for years, until the sudden catastrophic incident in County Hillock. And it was there that she saw firsthand what Dublinn truly stood for. The blinders were pulled away from her eyes, and she finally saw the horrific biolence and pain caused even to Tarans for what it truly was.
She couldn't be here anymore.
And so Ash Girl ran.
She ran from County Hillock. She ran far, deep into the lands that used to be Tara, back towards where she knew. And eventually, her feet found half-forgotten yet familiar pathways that led her up to a ruin of collapsed, crumbled stone, charred wood, twisted metal and sodden ashes. She stared at it through the lashing rains, and memories began to slowly bubble up to the surface of her mind. as through through molasses. And the first to arrive was a name that she recognize, but felt somehow wrong in Ash Girl's mind.
Aoife Eóganachta had come home.
She couldn't go back to Dublinn. She knew that. Her home--her second home--was gone forever. She shook her head, trying to ignore the shivers that ran through her pale body. And as the rain began to peter off, she slowly, meditatively, began to walk through the ruins.
Every time her eyes played over something even the vaguest bit familiar, new memories began to surface. Memories that she knew belonged to her, but felt like someone else's. She came across her own room at one point, or at least she thought she did; as she stared at the third floor bedroom that had fallen into the first floor, she thought she recognized the shattered remnants of a fireplace and chimney that were piled up inside. She was in a daze as she passed through it all.
Finally, she wound her way into what she remembered now was the living room, and there, where her father once read by the fire, she found the collapsed remnant of the mantle. Almost hypnotized, she acted on a vague impulse and scraped aside the ashes, digging through the refuse of the years until her hand closed around the handle of Claíomh-na-Samhain. A sharp feeling of disorientation blurred through her; she was Ash Girl. But she was Aoife too.
So now...this home was gone, and there was no going back to Dublinn. Not after that. Never again. She thought she might puke.
She did.
But still, the question remained. Where? Where, with this sword on her back, should she go?
Not Victoria, obviously. Maybe Columbia? Yeah, that was...probably the best idea.
Columbia was nice enough. But it didn't hold her for very long, and nor did anywhere else. Unsteady, unmoored, a self-imposed pariah from her homeland, she became a drifter, roaming hither and thither for the next several years. She took odd jobs; she took mercenary work; she took anything she could find. But Siracusa, Leithanien, Iberia; none of them held her for more than six months.
As she bounced around, she inevitably found herself drawn into conflicts, and struck out against what she perceived as injustice. Whether as Aoife or as Ash Girl, she kept roving, kept moving. Until the summer of year 1105.
She was caught up in a conflict again. She was prepared for many things; her skill with her sword and her tough Vouivre physique had carried her through much. But what she was not prepared for was a grenade of active originium detonating nearly underneath her foot.
The explosion itself didn't do a huge amount of damage. That wasn't the point. The problem were the countless shards of originium that blasted into her, afflicting her with a crushing infection immediately.
And...she didn't know what to do after that.
She never thought she'd be infected. And she wasn't exactly in a place with stellar treatment of the Infected; the south of Ursus was not a great place for her to be. So she just kept trying to do what she'd done before.
But it did not go well.
Even as close to the edge of the plate as she was, she couldn't even make it all the way. And it was then--barely functional, deeply disoriented and dizzy, aching all over from her oripathy--Aoife was discovered and saved from death's door by a woman who called herself "Firewatch." Said something about an organization; Ash Girl wasn't quite in the proper mental state to really figure out what was going on. And right before she passed out, she heard Firewatch talking to someone over a radio.
Next time she woke up--just a month ago now--she was in Rhodes Island's medical bay, and felt better than she had in weeks. It took time for her to mend, and to discover what had happened, and where she was. And soon afterwards, she discovered her Arts. Her very, very powerful freezing arts. And as she recovered, she came to a resolution. It had been years ago now since she'd lost her second home.
It was time she find another.
Trivia:
As mentioned, Aoife's health is not exactly stellar. Specifically, her oripathy has gifted her with several unfortunate symptoms. In addition to the crystalline lesions--she has over a dozen now--she has tremors, fevers, and full body aches, and a few other unpleasant things. These can be largely managed through oripathy medication, but they can only be managed, never completely removed. There's always a chance one of them will strike.
