Name
Alyssana Grey (Prefers to be called Professor or some variant thereof. She will answer to Lady Alyssana and similar forms, including Lady Grey though it's not technically correct. Informally she is Alyssana, and some people can get away with calling her Alys.)
Title
Lady; Professor
Age
28 (born February 2nd, 1864)
Gender
female
Appearance
While Alys is not unpleasant to look at, she is no great beauty either. Yes, her skin is naturally pale where other ladies must go to efforts to appear so, but her thin lips are likewise lacking in any significant color. Her features are refined, but they are too sharp to be properly pretty. She is lean, but she is solid, where most ladies would prefer to be dainty. She is distinctly short, her growth impeded by various implants and a redirection of the energy that would have served that purpose to other things. Naturally her clothing is not so tight-fitting as to emphasize it, but she is a very active woman and has the musculature to match. While her waist is narrow, so too are her hips. As for her bosom, she does have one but it would hardly earn compliments without considerable assistance from corsets or padding, neither of which she favors. Her eyes are her best feature, a stormy grey with more or less blue depending on the day and the lighting. Her wavy hair is cut just past her shoulders, a light brown closer to sandy or ash than it is to dirty blonde. She generally wears it pulled back from her face, pinned securely into some half-up style. She will put it in a full ponytail or a bun when she needs it more contained, and might do something a bit fancier with it for formal occasions, but she will never wear it down.
Alyssana is clearly a lady of breeding, unless she's taking efforts not to appear so. She carries herself with the expected poise and her posture is perfectly straight. But where other women might mince, Alys strides. Her step is firm, her stance confident. She generally dresses as would be expected of a Victorian lady. Tightly laced boots peek out from underneath a floor length skirt, for it would be scandalous to show a hint of ankle (not that she hasn't, but it's not her preference). She prefers smaller bustles, and while she does wear a corset she sees no need to lace it as tightly as many attempt to do. Her blouses are frequently high-collared and long-sleeved, and she wears very little in the way of jewelry. The lady prefers simple elegance to ornate frippery, and her day-to-day outfits reflect that. Subtle embroidery is, in her opinion, far superior to excessive lace or flashy embellishment. Her favored colors are navy blue and dark grey.
School
attended Geraldine's & crashed classes at Polytech; teaches at Polytech
Guild
none
Gifts
Alyssana was not born in Hourglass City, and technically she does not possess a gift. She is above average in terms of her physical abilities but not beyond standard human capability. She heals well; she is resistant to disease; she has a high pain threshold; yet none of these are so visible as to invite comment. She is exceptionally intelligent but again, has no specific skill that would be counted as a gift. Officially she is recorded as having the machine gift, and she has a lovely pair of wings crafted with help from her brother, but she can make use of them because she has trained to do so. Her level of machine empathy is unremarkable, and requires her to be both familiar with the device and in close proximity to operate it. Furthermore, the mechanism must have the capability for the tasks she wishes performed; her wings circumvent this through sheer familiarity -- she's been using them for over a decade, and can conduct minor repairs on the fly. She can get a general feel for the condition of a device by contact, but knowing something needs tuning or repairs is different from knowing how to do either. For anything other than her wings she requires a full set of tools and intimate understanding of the device (things she rarely possesses); for her wings she can get away with stopgap measures as they are only ever used under her immediate control, and so she can adjust things as needed.
Her true sensitivity is to magic, particularly to the myalo/lustraya duality. While she cannot make use of the latter pairing, she can recognize repositories of their extracted form and given time, determine the purpose of such energy if present in a device. She is not entirely aware of the workings of this skill, given that such things are few and far between in Hourglass City. She cannot detect shades when they are possessing people, but in places such as the Half-Soot Forest where they roam free she can not only sense them nearby but is mostly safe from their attention, being immune to possession herself. She can ward them away from a small area around herself, perhaps a meter in radius, though it requires her concentration to do so. She can impose her will on a single shade for a short time, but only for simple commands, and this is draining. She does not have a great deal of experience in doing so, and while there is the potential that practice might improve the ability, Alyssana has never seen much reason to experiment.
She is vulnerable to myalo control methods, but will fight that control to the best of her ability.
Occupation
junior professor at Polytechnique Institute
Personality
Alyssana is an intelligent young lady who refuses to conform for conformity's sake. She demands the very best from herself and her colleagues, and anything less is unacceptable. She is a proud woman, and expects respect where she has earned it. Dismissing her because of her age, gender, or any other unfounded assumption is a good way to antagonize her. She likewise does not automatically associate a position of authority with worth. She prefers to judge people on individual merit and this can result in tension between her and people who feel they deserve more respect than she gives. She is not tactless, but generally sees little reason to sugar-coat the truth, and she will speak bluntly. While she is entirely capable of being politely charming if she wishes, she sees it as a form of dishonesty. She is sometimes seen as a killjoy, but this is not entirely accurate. Instead it is a product of a serious nature, a reserved demeanor, and a certain lack of patience for frivolity. Those who do not know her generally see her as impassive and aloof; those who do learn to discern the subtle differences in her expressions. She does not often lose her cool, and may be relied upon for sound decisions even under pressure. Alys has a strong sense of ethics, but in the end she is a pragmatist. Often one must either compromise or accept the consequences, and Alys does not shy from the latter. She is very intense and often judgmental, but well-reasoned arguments are given due consideration.
Where Alyssana appears to lack a normal range of emotions, it is merely her natural composure and inexpressive mien; where she seems to push people away it is more that she is slow to trust, and has difficulty opening up to others. Raised in near isolation for a number of years and needing to grow up rather quickly, Alyssana has a certain disregard for social norms and is used to looking after herself. She is fiercely independent, and while she asks for help when she needs it she is never pleased to do so, which often comes across as arrogance. She has little patience for the complex machinations of society and avoids them where she can, prefering books to balls and students to socialites.
As a teacher, Professor Grey is known to be strict and demanding. She does not tolerate students who do not put forth suitable effort, nor does she take well to horseplay. She requires her pupils to apply themselves to learning what she has to teach them but also to considering the subject matter for themselves, forming conclusions, and defending those conclusions. Reasoned discourse is not only permitted but encouraged. Students with questions are welcomed, and those who might need a little more help are never turned away. Professor Grey is a good judge of when someone is genuinely trying as opposed to when they just want quick answers or don't care about the topic.
Why would Captain Kingsford contact her?
Alyssana attended school at the same time as Captain Kingsford, and she is known to be well-connected in academic and scientific circles, and highly knowledgeable about myalo, shades, and automata. In-depth investigation of the underground automata research still conducted may turn up some interesting hints, though they're hard to connect to the twins without other knowledge that is extremely hard to come by. She and her brother were both in Lucius's circle, though they were far closer to the deceased Victor Bennett. Furthermore she is a skilled combatant when the need arises.
Preferred Weapons
Alyssana prefers using her knowledge and intelligence as weapons, but when it comes to an actual fight her favorite is by far the sword. She is accurate with rifle and revolver, and deadly with blades of all kinds.
Preferred Methods of Confrontation
Alyssana would prefer things not come to fighting, but not everyone is interested in a well-reasoned argument. It is regretable, but often other methods of persuasion are required, and sometimes the problem must be...removed entirely.
Favorite Classes at School
theoretical physics, history of Old Ravenmire, comparative magics, calligraphy
Biography
Alyssana's early past is a well-kept secret, known to few and rarely discussed. She and her twin brother Christopher were adopted at the age of eleven by the Lord Grey and his lady wife, nobles known for their peculiar fondness for archaeological pursuits and respected (though eccentric) members of the Scholar Guild. The twins were introduced to Hourglass society as unfortunate children deprived of parents and birthright by disaster, in need of guardians better suited to their brilliance than the ones they'd been left with up to that point. As the Greys were lacking any children of their own despite all efforts to be otherwise, and nearing fourty, taking the two in was as much a matter of expedience as charity.
This was true...to a point. The details were rather more complicated. Though told they were orphans by the Gerald Tarrant, the man who raised them, the twins are actually the product of highly questionable experimentation into the capabilities of myalo, magic, and machinery -- and he their father. While they are not properly automatons, their hearts are clockwork and portions of their skeletons and other innner workings have been reinforced with metal, the better to bind the experimental magic to their bodies. Magical treatments started in utero, and continued through childhood, with the physical enhancements carried out through a combination of surgery, healercraft, machine magic, and metalcraft. The experts Gerald associated with were a ring of unethical researchers and craftsfolk working with shades, myalo, and automata, among other things. Gerald himself apprenticed under Lucius' parents, and retained a great deal of their research. His focus was more on engineering desired traits into the resulting child -- it is unclear whether Alyssana and Christopher are the "original" personalities, entirely different ones, or some combination thereof. He also had a vested interest in finding methods to control shades and myalo automata.
Though the pair were raised in ignorance of their origins, in an isolated location and with limited outside contact, Gerald always intended them to carry on his work: Christopher as the man who would dedicate his life to furthering that research, and Alyssana as Christopher's guard and caretaker. When Alyssana found out, she drew her own conclusions. Faced with the prospect of having her own life forcibly tied to another and her will subjugated, she rebelled. She and her brother fled, though Alyssana let herself be captured to ensure Christopher's escape. Luckily for him the Greys and their team were working at a dig site not so far away, and the boy was sighted from aloft. It was some time before the well-intentioned team extracted the details of his past and his sister's plight, and set about recovering her.
Gerald realized he was outmatched and relinquished the twins to the guardianship of the Greys, who formally adopted them. Privately, he intended to continue his research -- if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. He is now deceased. Alyssana did not kill him, although she did make the attempt. At thirteen she wasn't strong enough, but he poisoned himself rather than have her become a murderer, knowing she would not have let the matter rest. His last words to her were to say he was proud of her. She's never forgiven him.
Alyssana's relationship with her new family was uneasy at first, but eventually settled into more of a mentor/student dynamic than parent/child. For years she'd looked after her brother as the sensible sibling in contrast to his lack of foresight and absentmindedness. She resented dedicated attempts at getting her to open up, and found it difficult to adapt to the social forms now required of her. To this day she is far closer to her tutors and members of the household than Lord and Lady Grey, though she views them both with tolerant affection. They wanted children so very much, but neither she nor her brother is quite the right fit, and neither of them were looking for parents.
Academically she is brilliant, though not to the purely genius level of her brother. After a few years of private tutors in various subjects (as well as informal teachers she went about acquiring for herself, with or without permission), she was sent to Mme Geraldine's for a proper education, and to hone her social skills. It worked, more or less, though the fit was as awkward as that with the Greys. At sixteen Christopher was sent to the Polytechnique Institute, affording Alyssana an excuse to crash classes, which she did openly and without shame. Many times she was packed back to Geraldine's, but there were some teachers that didn't mind -- and some that she won over after quietly helping other students in the class. She's spent a number of months both in high school and college studying abroad, or accompanying the Greys' team on-site. She developed an interest in history and archaeology along with the various sciences, and she divides her time between research, field study, and teaching.
Three years ago she obtained an assistant teaching position at the Polytechnique Institute at the suggestion of one of her mentors there. The headmaster there isn't entirely thrilled, but there's no question she knows her material and comes well-qualified. She specializes in magic anthropology, with a dual focus on the Wasteland Cities and Ancient Altiris.
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