Data Cancer #IA-920
Name: Smudge Pixelby, though it's unclear whether that name was chosen or adapted from the entity's 'host'. Sometimes Smudgie or Pix.
Title: Various institutions of magic and science have assigned classifications to the entity. The United Federation of Planets has indexed its existence as Interdimensional Anomaly 920, while the Ecetopian Institute of Memetic Research has more poetically dubbed it Tintengeißel, the Ink Scourge.
Height: About 135 centimetres to upper end of neck. Its 'head' adds about 35 centimetres to the total height. Ground to center of 'face' is about 150cm. In other words, even though it might be about as tall as an adult woman overall, it still has to look up to match gaze with most humanoids.
Weight: Anomalous. Even the corporeal body of the data cancer sometimes seems to detach from gravity when asleep, unwatched, or not concentrating on its surroundings. At other times, particularly when upset, it can weigh well over a metric tonne; How the entity is capable of supporting this weight with no observable problems is unknown.
Age: The Ink Scourge was first documented to exist some three or four years ago. Research suggests the human that became its body was sixteen or seventeen years of age upon entanglement.
Species: A unique entity that entered this reality from another, which it claims is not very different to our own. Subsequent research has shown this assertion to be demonstrably wrong, but #IA-920 insists on it nonetheless.
Tier/Influence: 2 (Local/Improved); #IA-920 is not capable of consciously spreading its influence across the datasphere, and as such, its effects are localised. None of its anomalous traits have been weaponised to any significant extent and some don't appear to be under the entity's control whatsoever, though their potential for lethality remains fairly high. #IA-920 is not known to possess any military-level training, anomalous or otherwise.
Group(s): None, yet.
Appearance: From the neck down, Smudgie hasn't significantly changed the human body she entangled. Brown skin, somewhat stocky, not particularly muscular or well-endowed. Her internal anomalies generally aren't visible except around her neck and spine, where her organic components meet her 'head'. Smudge's head and 'face' consist of an obsolete CRT screen of indeterminate origin, much like that of an early '90s computer or television set, complete with some buttons and dials. The screen typically shows static snow, though Smudge can use it to emote or show her eye. Similarly, when Smudge is upset, she produces white noise, sometimes mixed with muffled voices of indeterminate origin.
Smudge's eye and 'body' is hidden in hyperbolic space accessible through the screen. Her eye is lens-shaped, like a human, and consists of roughly geometric shapes that are neither organic nor mechanical in origin but very clearly artificial. An array of tubes and pipes connects it to her 'body', which is composed of whatever data storage medium she currently occupies- Typically ink splatters, glass and pixels depicting white noise, scrunched paper and graphite dust, or human neural tissue. When outside the screen, this body typically forms an amorphous spidery mass capable of rapid locomotion. When not occupying pixelated light, Smudge's screen will change accordingly, becoming a mass of stained paper or oozing brain tumours.
She typically wears a blue-and-white hoodie, long sleeve shirt, pleat skirt and thigh high socks.
Personality: Smudge tries to make the best out of life. She's ditzy and often gets into trouble, and is sometimes very dependent on clinging to authority figures to help her get to safety. A little shy, she nonetheless tries her best to interact positively with others, and spends a lot of time apologising unnecessarily. Smudge has a big heart and tries to care for both friends and strangers, and sees a lot of beauty in the world. Her otherwise human demeanor is sometimes offset, however, by her belief that the purpose of all existence is to produce and share data; This sometimes leads her to behave in inconsistent and morally unsettling ways.
Most of the time, though, she just tries to write down and publicise every interesting bit of information she can get her hands on.
Traits:
- ( 3 ) Smudge can exit her screen and thereby her body. Having done so, she can fuse with a medium of data transfer, replicating it and forming a new 'body' from it as if by elemental magic. The medium becomes chaotic as she does so, reduced to its equivalent of 'white noise'. The body she leaves behind does not decompose or cease life function, but can be damaged, and must be returned to shortly, as Smudge's ability to control her medium wanes with time until her 'body' starts to disintegrate, which could kill her within hours. Conventional weaponry and magic are also capable of damaging her faster than she can regenerate.
While her bodies are only as dangerous as their media- Glass can cut, ink can suffocate- the organic brain is also a medium of information transfer that can be inhabited if Smudge is given access to it through an open skull fracture of sufficient size. Electrochemical activity in the neurons of Smudge's 'brain' form can be used to discharge a painful shock. - ( 1 ) Smudge remembers every bit of data she has ever fused with and absorbed, though it's often very difficult for her human-like psyche to extract when not encoded in languages she knows. She can display much of it using her screen, though.
- ( 2 ) The fundamental interactions of ordinary physics don't always apply to Smudge. Her mass fluctuates and she herself has occasionally passed through or gotten stuck in walls. Smudge has no control over when or how she's next going to have one of her accidents, but they tend to happen most often when she is distracted or not under direct observation by a conscious entity for a significant length of time. Every now and again Smudge's friends find her daydreaming in a place that gravity or the solidity of matter should have prevented her from reaching, such as the top of a tall building or on the other side of a locked door. Having no idea how she got there but great difficulty in getting back, Smudge finds these situations very embarrassing.
The most important thing to note from all this, of course, is that unless someone is watching her (or she is feeling particularly self-conscious), Smudge rarely shows up on camera.
Items:
- ( 1 ) Smudge's only item of note is her hoodie, which she keeps meticulously clean and in good condition. She'd sooner leave her body behind than her hoodie.
History: The entry of #IA-920 into our universe appears to have been a random occurrence, or quite possibly the result of magical interference with alternate dimensions. In any case, the entity appears to have caused significant arcane fallout upon its arrival in urban Vasishka. What resulted was the death of both a teenager who happened to be in the area and an eldritch creature that could not survive in her reality.
Aspects of both, however, were preserved in the resultant entity #IA-920, which named itself Smudge Pixelby over the following months. #IA-920 attempted to live a fairly ordinary human life for some time, and somehow managed to maintain a relationship with the deceased student's boyfriend, who by all accounts appeared to be quite accepting of her new look. This stable situation collapsed within the year as #IA-920's nonhuman features became more apparent, leading to certain events which were handled by Vasishka police as an incident of interdimensional violence.
Since then, #IA-920 has travelled alone, and refused to part with the jacket given to her by her former partner.
1x Like
