Absinthium
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Absinthium was born from the drink that bears her name. After my second glass I thought what a riot it would be to play a green fairy that everyone tried to chase. Really, it seemed like a blast to me at the time... the fairy had a hold of me so to speak. Since "Green Fairy" was already taken, a little more thought was placed into the character and, after almost 3 years of roleplaying her, she's anything but some hollow joke now.
As influences and what not go for her, listening to a lot of MLWTTKK helps out a lot as does copious amounts of GIR from Invader Zim... and alcohol, it's her birthright after all. Though there is a bit more serious and darker side coming in from River from Fierfly... but not much. I'm just too damned silly half the time.
All in all, she's my crazy cut lose from any bounds side, the side that keeps screaming and I keep finding new and innovative ways to make it shut up. At least here, she gets a little free reign.
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| The Mad Maiden Absinthium by Scarfgirl! | |
| Absinthium | |
| Player: Graver | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 42 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Artemisia Blight |
| Known Aliases: | The Mad Maiden, The Maiden of Madness |
| Species: | No one's too sure. Most think she started out human. |
| Age: | 18 |
| Height: | 4'11" |
| Weight: | It... depends |
| Eye Color: | Blue, Green, Brown, Sometimes gold |
| Hair Color: | Green... usually |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Force of Nature |
| Place of Birth: | Some say Louisiana, others Say Croatoa... she likes the latter. |
| Base of Operations: | The Zig... or her own little world. |
| Marital Status: | Sadly, she's an unwed mother |
| Known Relatives: | Solanacea Blight (sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Illusion Control, Radiation Emission, Psychic Mastery, | |
| Known Abilities | |
| herbalism, swamp magic and other forms of juju | |
| Equipment | |
| an astounding array of things that may or may not really exist | |
| Her illusions are not "illusions"> They are her inner delusions bleeding over into consensual reality. They are very real for a short time while she is present. Where she goes, reality breaks down and madness fallows. | |
The Baffling Absinthium a maddening force of nature.
Contents |
Those Who Will Never Be The Same Again
- Dragonberry A great and mighty dragon from times of yore who's very presence brings flocks of devotees to receive her blessing, the lucky touch of a dragon. But a friend, she could never be, for, alas, this dragon on your stockings, this mighty beast of pure power and might and candy thievery has so many other followers that getting close to her is like drowning, being pulled down into the quiet dark depths of an ocean, hair wrapping around your ankles pulling you further and further down to the mysteries green depths where the chanting can be heard, the chanting... the chanting… um, I getting off topic here, aren’t I?
- Radey Ayte With her her Bindu open, is it no wonder she is, her self, Absinthium's living breathing soul?
- Mal Like a tumor in her head, birthed as a god unto this world, Absinthium's only begotten son.
- Reawakened A God from the stars who isn’t whom she thought she was in love with but wasn’t.
- Rebound/Statesboy A mighty and great hero who had his name removed in a lawsuit by the star spangled ass and latter died… or went to Idaho, same difference.
- Young Eagle A great comrade to Absinthium who died 80 years before she ever got to meet Absinthium.
- HEROID A mighty magic robot who fathered to her only son in a strange night of passion and x-ray eyes. He’s remarried now, and though it breaks her heart, she still tries to stalk him when ever she gets the chance.
- Penumbra Edge Once her heart burned with desire for just one last taste of his ashen lips, one last caress from those gautleted hands, but it's her soul he's in love with, not her.
- Sun Steel Now there's a shinning face that Absinthium will never remember, but damned if that calendar didn't come in handy time and time again.
- Dr. Kenneth Marx He was her only confidant and the only thing keeping her out of the Zig on so many occasions, from running riotous through various hospitals to grave robbing. Unfortunately, on 10.30.06 Dr. Marx was found dead in his office from an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound. All of his notes, stretching back a full year simply said "Absinthium" again and again.
Teem Affiliation: Formally of The Teen Squadron: At one point, they tolerated her existence but after her incarceration in the Zig, well, that kind of ended her allegiance to them. While Radey Ayte was some how able to pull it off, all the straps and restraints they keep on poor Absinthium makes any kind of work release nearly impossible... never mind the fact that she can just vanish if she so wished....
In the Zig, she does seem to be the ring leader of a gang calling themselves the Tea Party Society. No one messes with them.
Personality
First, it should be perfectly clear that Absinthium is insane. She suffers from extreme dementia leaving nearly 80% of her brain dead and the remaining 20% to do all the work. Needless to say, it does what it can but it's not always spot on.
For the most part, she's a quiet mostly introverted girl prone to bouts of the exact opposite. Her behavior is highly erratic and actually has a very visible effect upon her physiology. Who and what she is seems to stem solely from her own self image which can shift rather rapidly from one "form" to the next, though once one becomes accustomed to the forms, dealing with her is a lot easier.
Powers & Abilities
She has the ability to literally break down the barrier between realities, though this ability is not completely under her control. Where ever she goes, she weakens the metaphysical boundary between the consensual universe and her own inner world allowing her delusions to bleed over into reality. Since the consensual universe is far stronger then any individual reality, what ever bleeds over from her own world does not last too long as consensual reality always reasserts it's self, erasing the effects of Absinthium's madness.
However, there have been cases where the effects that her delusions had on the consensual universe were permanent and very real. Several times, criminals that were "stabbed to death" by her "knife girls" still bear the scars (physical as well as psychological) from the attacks and it would seem that the lasting collateral damage that her delusions are able to inflict has been escalating as she falls further and further into her own delusions. Of these delusions, several key figures come up again and again, though this is by no means a complete list of the legion in her head
The Worms
The Worms seem to hold the greatest power for Absinthium. For her, they are her guides, those she goes to for answers. "They knows th' mysteries a th' dark an' th' death' an' they know's what it is ta be alive... they know alla what ya done an' said when they crawl through yer skin an' they know the smell a what they's gonna eat on ya when they sniff th' livin'." she would say. She would also make many mentions of "The Wheel of the Worm", a kind of fatalistic conglomeration of the circular time theory some post modernist thinkers like to lend credit to.
The Knife Girls
The knife girls are pure sadistic murder. According to Marx, they are the manifestations of repressed memories that have been, for the most part, lost due to the extensive damage to her brain. They are in no way real in the sense that you or I are real, but as long as she remains in the room, their knives will cut just as surely as any real one. There are still criminals from the Tsoo faction that bear the pains of the knife scars but no visible evidence of a cut ever being made.
((In game, her Phantom Army represents her Knife Girls))
Mama
"A blasphemous thing of torn flesh. Flies alla commin' from her. Her eyes are your hell!" These are the statements that those who have looked upon her have said. When ever Absinthium is in danger, real trouble, she seems to manifest, driving deep terror into any who look upon her. It's thought that she might actually be the ghost of Artimisia's dead mother still protecting her child but most psychologists are prefer to think of her as a manifestation of Absinthium's latent guilt over her mothers demise.
((In game, her Spectral terror represents her Mama))
Mal
While some argue that Mal is an actual living breathing, um, thing that she has created, a good portion of his existence is owed to her world that she has constructed. He seems, from afar to be a grayish lump of cancerous flesh with a very bad attitude, but the closer you get to Absinthium, the more he changes, becoming more like a large statured man of perfect almost god like build, tanned skin and black curly hair. His face, however, is a bit off-putting being that of an infants face filled with row upon row of serrated yellow teeth.
According to the stories, he was a cancerous growth that she made her self have and then, after splitting her head open, gave birth to Mal, her son and ever present companion.
((Mal is represented in game by her Phantasm))
The Mute Girl
Dr. Marx had once remarked that the strange waif like girl that sometimes appeared, almost on the verge of death was Absinthium's "voice of reason". He had tried several experiments to unite the two of them once again, but they only seemed to meet with disaster. Still, she appears with a type witter and type written note anytime something of dire importance must be said, something Absinthium can't be trusted to do.
The Ætheric Elixer
The source of the weakening of the boundaries between the inner world and the outer seems to be a glowing green substance, neither solid, liquid, gas, nor energy, but containing properties of all four, that M.A.G.I. calls Æthiric Elixir. This strange substance seems to have completely replaced Absinthium's blood and, while it not only breaks down the boundaries between realities, it also seems to be fully capable of generating and altering matter. This ability that it has is most noticeable in organic matter, especially Absinthium's own body. She has been seen taking incredible punishment and fatal blows time and time again, yet the Æthiric Elixir always manages to put her back together again. She has been stabbed in the head, chopped apart, shot, burned, and even shredded in devastating explosions but, somehow, that green substance puts her back together again. In fact, it is the only thing holding her dying brain together which could very well be the cause of her sometimes very real delussionary world.
Her control over the Æthiric Elixir has been slowly growing. She is able to mentally will it to flow out of her and into others, allowing it's regenerative properties to benefit them as well. Not only has she used it to meant the wounds of others, but she has been seen raising the recently deceased with it, bringing them back to life without even a scar left to show the damage that they had endured. Other times, she has used it to infuse perfectly healthy individuals, allowing the Æthiric Elixir to actually increase the efficiency of their bodies. It's capabilities go far beyond beneficial, however. She has also been known to use it quite often to actually weaken and "sicken" an infused target, disrupting her targets natural biological functions as well as weakening the integrity of their physical structure.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Beyond the fact that Absinthium is completely out of her mind and might walk off a cliff thinking that the laws of gravity might have changed, she is also entranced by shinny sparkly things and has the attention span of a gnat.
Equipment
A prison issued jump suit, prison issued sandals, prison issued tooth brush, prison issued tooth paste, prison issued bar of soap, prison issued blanket, prison issued pillow, and a whole lot of random things that seem to come from no where that can never be found no matter how many cell checks and cavity searches are preformed.
Character History
Once upon a time, she was a member of a large and quite dysfunctional family known as the Teen Squadron. There she was quite happy, or melancholy, or jubilated, or some other emotion yet to be named. The Teen’s cave, originally founded and hallowed out by the late Mariko, had fallen to Absinthium to watch over and maintain… and watch over it she did. Defying any known form of science it seemed to grow and change with her whims and as her madness grew, so did the cave.
Unfortunately, as her dementia increased, so did her potential for harm. She was always easily confused and distracted but her missteps had always been swept under the carpet by her psychiatrist, Dr. Kenneth Marx. After his untimely death (some say suicide) Absinthium went unchecked.
With minimal contact from her surrogate family, the Teen Squadron, she became easily confused over matters of dire importance. Believing the Devouring Earth’s agenda to be a right and just cause, she assisted them in the spore bombing of four Cray factories. After being apprehended by a squad of Psy-Cops assisted by a company of Longbow operatives, she was remanded to the custody and care of the Ziggarate Prison
In prison, she has been under 24 hour surveillance and has not even so much as tried to make a wall a door. While she definitely hasn't been a model prisoner, she has calmed down considerably from the state she was in when she first arrived. The drug regiment she is on seems to be working. She no longer has to be in restraints and seems completely content to stair at the corner of her cell singing "Freebird" by Lanyard Skynard.
On the few times she's lucid enough to interact with the general prison population, she seems to have amassed a small number of other prisoners she calls The Tea Party Society who watch her back while she's in her not-so-lucid phase. How or why these prisoners help her out is a mystery the corrections officers has yet to crack, especially considering the bulk of the Tea Party Society is composed of Hellions, Trolls, Outcasts, and even one supper villain Dr. Murder-Man.
What's stranger then the Tea Party Society? The fact that there's a copy-cat vigilant on the lose on Paragon city with the same MO that Absinthium used to have. She even goes by the same name leaving the collateral damage of a psychic hurricane in her wake.
Oddly enough (or not at all odd considering who this article is about) many citizens, and even some of our own boys in blue, have reported seeing the hero Absinthium in and around Paragon City, stopping jail breaks, bank heists, and wrecking the minds off the criminal element.
Weather this is a copy-cat vigilante who wants to fallow in the footsteps of a fallen hero or the fact that, some how, Absinthium's mind and world has extended farther then anyone ever thought possible has yet to be seen.
Trivia
Artemisia Absinthium is the Latin name for an herb more commonly referred to as wormwood (or sometimes witches wart). Wormwood was primarily used as an anti-parasitic agent for getting rid of stomach worms, hence its name. It is still used as a gastrointestinal cure-all and appetite stimulator though it is most famous (or infamous) as the primary ingredient (besides really strong alcohol) in the bohemian drink Absinthe.
--Graver 23:44, 20 June 2007 (MST)
