Familia Tenebrae Amor/Minore
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Alleyway
The dead do not change.
While this is usually true, it certainly does not seem to apply to Nikita Crowe. [Whose last name has sadly been somewhat mutable due to pilot dysfunction.] Thinking herself still alive she hooked up with the mercenary Gunnergirl. Somewhere along the line they fell in love despite the unfortunate revelation of the young girl's rather violent death.
Nikki now exists in a quasi-ectoplasmic state of sort-of half-death; soul bound to Callista, but comparatively independent. Her comprehension and subsequent acceptance of her demise has left her a mischievous and frequently frustrating poltergeist aboard the ship, as well as (to Callie's chagrin) a lousy alarm clock.
Anguish Eyes
Bat Taninim
Called Bat Taninim by some of the earlier victims of her feeding frenzies along the coast, Carry Webber was not a friendly creature. After eating one of the crew, she was captured (as opposed to being shot dead as per the search teams orders) and brought back to the ship for study. It was there aboard ship that the homicidal monster routine collapsed and the crew discovered a scared and twisted human at the core.
Carry is no longer really human. Recent developments involving some form of possession and tainted fish have given the crew something to worry about; but the discovery has proven a reprieve from Carrys cravings for homo sapien.
Carry is married to Lowbuzz.
Bladeraithe
"I hunt the things that go bump in the night. And for me, it is always night..."
Long ago, when she was a young woman, something visited Raithe Culkin's home. Before it left, it had taken the lives of her family, her eyes- and her soul. She was left essentially dead, trapped in a twilight existence, with the mark of an Outsider burned into the tenuous, pale flesh of her back.
Now, effectively immortal, ageless, often formless, Raithe hunts and exterminates paranormal manifestations around the globe, acquiring trophies and talismans that increase her power, always searching for an answer to the mystery of her continued survival- or at least a final, restful death. Drawn like a moth to the flame of magical and Outsider power, it was inevitable that she would find the Familia. But only time will tell what course her fate will take, now that it is entangled with theirs...
[Raithe was disincorporated before the Stalker buffs went into effect. She may yet make a reappearance.]
Blunt Tierny
Burner Ulson
Cost of Steel
Jessica is a bit of an unknown quantity. An unknown quantity of a an absurdly stable element. She was found wandering into the isles after the smugglers ship she was on cut too close to the families ship.
She could be anything to most people, just a short but bulky mass of hydraulic armor. Under the armor is a layer of tight leather. Under the leather is a layer of tight straps. And finally under the straps is a tight leotard.
All of it is lined inside with electrical nubs.
Jess herself is a mess a lot of the time. Shes quiet and when out of her armor long tends to be slow and lethargic. A row of mechanical nodes reach from the top of her neck to the base of her spine and are surrounded by way too much scar tissue.
The fact of the matter is that without the pain and stimulation, Jessica falls asleep and tends to stay that way. Oddly, it was her inability to wake up that got her aboard the ship; carried there during a moderate scaled catastrophe. She was forgotten in a cabin and remained there collecting dust until Marci stumbled on her mostly by accident and woke her up.
Most of Jessicas sleep worries are over now (usually) as she has of her own volition, chosen to become a pet of Marcis. She spends a lot of time without any clothes at all trotting along after her mistress.
Crystal Cooper
Dark Mina
As it turns out, the Cainite lord Vlad Dracul Tepes was harder to kill then they thought. And he returned for his heart's desire, Mina Murray (now Harker). Her husband Johnathan fought frantically, bravely...and uselessly.
Now, after over a century of life in the company of the shadow creatures of Europe, Mina has left her lord's mountain fastness. Vlad, tired of eternal existence, has entered one of his periods of torpor and Mina, still an adolescent in many ways, has grown bored. Here in the Isles she has taken a new temporary lord, the Incubus Ahriaz. She hunts with him and for him, in company with the alien hybrid Moumoku...at least until she gets bored again. As Ahriaz has, for reasons of his own, sworn allegiance to Witcharc, Mina serves her as well, though they distrust and dislike each other.
Mina's Hunger, a spirit in itself, makes her a dangerous companion. She constantly craves sensation to keep it at bay; twice, it has completely taken control of her and, in that feral state, she nearly killed Ahriaz.
Ditto Tweese
Deet was a friend of Tia Lynn before the mutant was convicted. For a long time she held a grudge for Tia damaging her spine and leaving her partially paralyzed.
It was when her former commander in Longbow betrayed her (again) that she started to see there was more to things then she thought. Deet is NOT stupid, and being bound to a wheelchair only made her mind sharper. Finally reaching the Isles to flee a framing that ruined her business, she started working on some way to restore her back to working.
She met Tia.
It was a little bit of a spectacle between Tia and Marci... and Shivy... and it took place on the front steps of the Giza casino. Deet was there. After the rather astonishing display that gathered a large group of veiwers, Tia gave Deet a gift: a lump of Shivy. The shivan material proved to be able to (albeit slowly) restore some of the function to Dittos body.
She now spends her days aboard ship, working on her little science projects and building an armored suit to allow her to help the family defend itself.
Endosai
Neive Winters ended up... infected by something. Nobody really knew what. She escaped government black ops personel and fled through Pocket D into the isles. Somehow she found her way into the family.
Just when she started to get hungry is hazy. She doesn't quite remember. She cannot eat normal food as she seems to have no more throat, but started to get terrible cravings in place of food; she NEEDED sex. Whether she feeds on the act, emotions, or bodily fluids is still in question, but her feedings tend to be long and somewhat wild at times.
Over time (not much of it either) she became close friends, and then a lover of Ahriaz, but something about sex with him seemed to increase the rate of change in her body... and those changes were progressively more obvious. Currently, the changes seem to have slowed, but she is now barely human but for appearance. She is a semifluid, holding her human form mostly by force of will and out of mental habit.
As she is still quite bright with computers, Neive spends much of her time in what used to be the communication room, now her computer lab. The rest of the time she spends either in bed with various members of the crew, in her own room (not very often), or lately in the subsections between holds with Tia's massive shivan.
Generatio Secundus Familia: Inanna, Jain, and Laetitia Dolores
Inanna
Inanna is physically the daughter of Tiamat Lynn, though she has some of Kushaya and Marci in her as well. Sporting a near identical look to her mother in the physical sense she has developed a somewhat less rumpled appearance in public, keeping her hair straighter and her clothes higher quality. She spends a great deal of her time trying to control herself, as she contains not only the energy of youth, but all the random insanity of a kitten coupled with a major portion of a Chaos Goddess' soul.
Genevieve el'Abishai
"Mommy! Look at the pretty red lady..." "HUSH, girl, don't stare, it's not polite."
"Hay, doll. Whatcha doin' when you get off tonight, hmmm?"
"MAN I'd like to get a piece of that." "Are you CRAZY, man? She'd eat you, alive AND dead". ""Oh, but WHAT a way to go..."
Smiling Gennie.
Sexy Gennie.
Deadly Gennie...
Thousands of denizens of the Rogue Isles walk past Genevieve every day, and never really notice her, unless a sudden tingle in the crotch can be considered "notice". She's one of the Succubus door girls at Pocket D, and no that's not a costume, she's the real thing. Not only that, she's a Succubus Majore, one of the upper crust of the Eros Tenebrae, the middle class of demonic seducers and tempters. How she came to the Isles, and how she has avoided being dragged back to the Shadowlands as prize or prisoner she has never explained, nor has Witch ever asked. She is a loyal friend, and that is enough. Her job at the D is perfect. Noone would expect a minor demon princess to WORK there, it gives her the perfect opportunity to scope out her prey, and she is a genuinely curious and gregarious creature. She thrives on the noise and bustle, as well as the feeding opportunities, large and small, to be found there. She's a lover, not a fighter- but she can kill quite handily either way. When necessary, she uses a pair of wickedly sharp hellforged scimitars to thoroughly shred anyone who threatens her or her friends and loved ones. She never seems to use the other powers people associate with Succubae, other than her personality- that may be one reason she has remained free for so long. Gennie maintains her own apartment in Port Oakes, but spends a great deal of her time with the Family.
[Gennie started out as an NPC, and was reborn post-I11 as a playable]
Graceless One
- upcoming*
Horse Frisser
Elton Frisser didn't set out to be the right hand of a madwoman and unofficial "father figure" to her crew - but he wouldn't change it for the world.
A long and winding path led him from gang tough to Superadine user to prisoner to parolee, college graduate, and then back to the Zig - this time as Warden of the women's Z block. The trust he engendered in his wards and his talents as peacemaker between the various factions helped overcome the simple fact of his size: Elton was 5'5 and weighed maybe 140. With glasses.
A long series of events led to Marci coming under his care - and a subordinate's error led to her being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, completely helpless. Elton cared for all his wards deeply, and did his best to set the wrong right - because he came to believe the Zig and other places like it weren't really for punishment, they were more a right and "good" form of segregation. "Some people need different rules is all", he's been known to say...and underneath, he is one of those people.
Eventually, Arachnos came and spirited away Marci Raver for their Project Destiny...and Elton Frisser went with her, knowing he'd found the rules he needed, her first "boy" in the Isles. After long service and a lucky, skillful shot during a battle with Ace McKnight, he was granted the wish that had led him to Superadine as a youngster, and after six weeks of painful treatments, nobody who knew Elton Frisser would recognize him in the 7', 600 lb mass of muscle now known as Horse.
Softspoken, suprisingly agile, and gay as Dad's hatband, Horse spends most of his time seeing to the running of the ship nowadays, setting schedules, keeping an eye on stores, easing frictions between folks, and helping Callie, Neive, Spoof, and Runner sift the intel data...though he's still Marci's first choice for heavy assault support due to his hyperdense bones and muscles and his steady leadership.
Hotshot Hendricks
Jeil Kyrn
Jeil fell into our dimension mostly by accident. Escaping crazed religious zealots bent on wiping out her dimensions royal family, she slipped into the wrong part of a dimensional portal and landed in this plane. It saved her life.
She was assumed to have been sent by Artemis and the Knives took her in and treated her. She remained silent, let her new 'sisters' tend to her wounds, and waited for a chance to escape ANOTHER religious pack of psychopaths. She got her chance when the ladies came through the front door guns and hands blazing. She nearly escaped...
An injured ankle left her captured, but it was blatantly apparent that she was not with the Knives (she killed a dozen of them herself). Since then she has settled into the ship somewhat, although she keeps to herself and still has trouble getting out of her previous orders codes of behavior.
With the help of family -and a less than friendly catgirl thing- Jeil has not only managed to put aside a big part of her past, but in fact, went back to her home dimension and killed the high preist of the Order of the Chalice.
Her secret, however, is out.
Not many know as of yet, but Jeil is the... less than legitimate third daughter of the emperor of her world (now deceased) and is by royal succession... the standing surviving empress.
Leslie Kraven
Yes, that Kraven. Funny how life works out, innit?
Captured almost by accident, on her first mission as a newly-fledged Warden, Tibor Kraven's daughter was a 'guest' of Kushaya and Marci for a while. Impressed by her girlish bravura, the Ladies ultimately befriended the young Longbow officer, and after a bit sent her home
Fast forward some time: a cryptic email suggests that Leslie is in serious trouble. A reconnaisance team finds her near death, betrayed by UNIT infiltrators within Longbow. In a desperate attempt to save her, Callista draws her into the bloodweb, and gives her a temporary home within her own consciousness.
A little while later, a suitable new body became available- a defeated Knives officer. Callista gratefully transferred the snarky but naive young woman into her new shell. At first, all seemed well. But training and psychology may, it seems, go bone-deep; Leslie's behavior has become erratic, and she has expressed opinions and philosophies far more suited to a hardened mercenary than an idealistic fallen heroine...
The Linnet Twins
Robert Lyndon and Jaimie Ladybird Linnet, AKA Nickel and Dime, look and sound every inch the trailer trash they grew up as. Pale, blonde, with thick redneck accents, both bear homespun jailhouse tats. Ragged cutoffs, cheap cigs, motorcycles and Daisy Dukes are de riguer for this pair. It would be easy to write them off as no-accounts, as they very nearly were.
There's more there, though. For one thing, they are devoted to each other in a way that would put most 'respectable' families to shame. For another, for all their casual, wanton, and sometimes violent behavior, they have well-developed consciences. And they weigh heavy.
Under the bravura, the thick hick speech (which both can turn on and off at will), there is a huge amount of guilt. And under the jailhouse tats, hidden and effaced as much as possible, are the Skinhead markings that two young, foolish kids once wore with pride...
Madway
Madras Wayland was a sweet little girl, with a thing for horses and drawing, and a love of bright colors and fireworks. She was dreaming about being an artist, or maybe an architect...
Until puberty. Then, accompanied by a massive growth spurt, she was stricken by constant, appalling visions and auditory hallucinations, both awake and asleep. Traditional therapies helped not at all. As her sanity began to break down from stress and fatigue, her behavior got more and more extreme- until her immensely powerful TK and PK powers literally exploded out of her, demolishing most of her high school, and killing a number of her teachers and fellow students.
Classified as a Peak Alpha Five TK, she was swiftly confined in a secure mental hospital, the staff of which was well-used to dealing with troubled metas. Several years of specialized therapy and medication was finally showing results, when two women claiming to be family members showed up bearing all the proper paperwork to have Madras released. At least, that's what the staff thought at the time. Examinations of security footage showed the women- unidentified to this day- merely walking in and walking off with the girl.
Over the next five years, Madras was used as a tool and weapon by the Carnival of Shadows, further damaging her grip on reality. Captured by the Ladies in their ongoing war against the puppetmistress DeVore, Maddie was one of their rare successes in mask removal. But things are far from sweetness and light: Madway, as she calls herself, is happy in her new home, but her sanity and lucidity are dangerously strained, and prone to slip. And when that happens, the beast the Carnival attempted to break to their will is unleashed...
Maria Rose
Maria spent far too long as a plaything for her stepfather and his paying associates. When she escaped and was found by Marina and Scooter she was fairly quickly taken in. The fact that she apparently had something living inside her has drawn a lot of attention.
Since coming aboard, Callista has held a trial of the 12 associates and her stepfather, executing most and unmanning a few others. Maria herself killed one of them. She is now learning magic under the scattered advice and tutelage of some of the demons and Christina. Most of her learning though is coming from the fallen angel Esarsha the Burned who is bound to the silver dinari fused into the girls chest.
Maria currently shares Marina's cabin.
Marina Sensiella
Smiling Italian eyes, a lush frame, and long black hair is all most people notice about Marina Sensiella, or Mare as she's more often known onship. One of the longer-term members of the crew, Marina was captured during a battle with Longbow during the Warrens days - and was almost relieved at the "change of command". Her superior officer - unlamentedly dead during the battle - abused his authority and the isolation of their outpost to turn her into a virtual slave, in every sense of the term...she still bears a neat double-line of puckered scars on the back of her neck; cigarette burns last forever.
After several months in custody, Marina came to join the Familia of her own free will. Her role is more often logistical or support than warrior, though she's still a decent shot with her custom-made concealable pistols, or a pair of custom 14mm pistols for heavier engagements. She also has access to a ground-effect hover system - worn as a harness over her battle armor, it provides a degree of distance from the dangers of melee, as Marina is effectively a normal human. Her only "supernatural" talent is more a quirk of her mindset and psyche; she can draw off pain from other members of the Familia and absorb it into herself, soothing their wounds at least till the fighting's done and she can apply more direct and traditional medical aid. This trick is not without cost - to take the pain, she has to feel part of it, and trying to take too much at once can incapacitate her. It also doesn't "heal" the damage...it just makes it hurt less.
Marina and Maria live together, and are rather officially an "item".
Ozymandias Temper
Radda af Dreki
Radda Af Dreki was not always... whatever she is now.
One a fanatic follower of the goddess Artemis, she is now a fanatic follower of Tiamat. Whether she means the mutant girl or the scattered goddess is anybodies guess. She could be called a slave. She could also be called a servant, pet, friend, bodyguard, acolyte, priestess, warrior, or possibly several other things.
Her name is long gone, neither remembered nor wanted by her. Like all her mistress' pets she was offered her memories back, but when offered she became almost violent in denial of her past. A past she neither wants, nor apparently cares one damn about.
[Radda has been disincorporated by the pilot to free a slot, and now exists only as an NPC]
Reza Kutsuu Yariman
Kids disappear a lot all over the world. When yet another vanished and was never found, the searchers stopped looking for a five year old girl and started looking for a body; Then they just stopped looking. Fast forward seven years to the present. The girl, formerly known as Reza Kutsuu Yariman, now going by the name Moumoku no Kibou, is an amalgamation of oddities. In one respect she is a young girl, beaten and broken over the course of years; but so too, she is a vessel carrying the last fragments of a broken goddess' voice; and then there's that crease that appears in her forehead when she gets hungry... and the strange fluid spines she forms... and the rapid healing... At this time Moumoku is bound to the Incubus Ahriaz not only by force of magic, but by her own choice.
Powder
Rumble Jones
Jimmy 'Rumble' Jones don't talk too much, and when he does it's kinda a growl. He don't smile much. He ain't all that big, either, but he's a good man to have watchin' your back in a scrape- especially when he starts swingin' a steamfitter's wrench...
Taciturn and glowery, Rumble is a member of the Familia's 'black gang', spending most of his time down in the engine rooms with Billy and Powder, keeping the clanker running despite her best attempts to fall apart under them. Even Marci can't remember where and when they met up- from his looks, he's a Native American, but if he talks about his past at all, he always lies...err...extemporizes about family, tribe, even what vague geographic region he's from. Rumors abound about him- he was a 'pharmacuetical importer'- no, he was a Coyote, bringing illegals across the TexMex border- no, he's ex-army, no he's a folk artist who went missing years ago, no he was a member of an ultra-violent splinter of the AIM...Truth is noone knows WHO the hell he is. He got his nickname from being one of the the first of The Boys to pile into a melee, with his wrench and homespun riot shield, every time. He works well, fights well, and mostly minds his own business outside of that.
He and Billy get along fine- neither of them is real social, or talks too much. He has mixed feelings about Powder- chicks and engines don't mix, to him, but he recognizes her quirky brilliance- and the fact that she's a close friend of Billy's. Some of the Familia go for the strong, silent guy thing, so he doesn't lack for company, if he wants it. A lot of the time, though, when he's not working, he just sits on the bow and watches the sky and the water.
Scooter Crisotbel
Some folks hit bottom hard and splash; others leave clawmarks all the way down.
The son of an unknown man and a mother he politely describes as 'liberal', Scooter (if he even remembers his real name, he never uses it) managed to get clear of the slums of LA and move to SanFran, hoping to get an education and a job. At first he did OK, being middling smart and a genuinely nice guy, but once a waitress friend introduced him to the Cali party scene, he was done. Already suffering from fairly meh self-esteem, the nightlife exposed his addictive personality, and down he went.
From social 'head, to lookout, to bagman, to dealer in his own right, he sank at the same time deeper into a kaleidoscope nightmare of meth, horse, pills, and violence. Arrested for involvement with a deal-related shooting of a cop, he woke up in the State hospital ward with a concussion, broken ribs, and a killer jones.
Things slid further south when a pair of his old running partners, arrested in the same bust, tried to erase him as a snitch. Suffering from screaming withdrawl mania, Scooter killed both men, and ended up in maxisec solitary. He's a little vague about how he got from the left coast to the Isles, but once there, things quickly went back to their old pattern. One night he found himself strung out, the eye of a heavy pistol locked on his face...
When the shot sounded, it was the other guy who went down. Scooter, before he passed out, found himself looking up into the darkest eyes he'd ever seen...the woman holding the gun carried him shipboard, where he gradually recovered.
Sort of. Marci's blood protects him from the physical issues of withdrawl, but so far nothing can be done about the screaming empties in his head. Still a basically nice guy, Scooter is consumed with self-loathing and psychological issues related to his habit. Constantly self-effacing, he tries to avoid contact with the rest of the crew as much as possible, to the dismay of a few close friends. Tall, emaciated, he does his tasks, complaining all the way, and then slinks back into the shadows.
Sherlina
When worlds run their course, the Balance needs a tool to recycle them. Often, that tool is fire, for little leaves the "ground" as fertile for a new planting. And so, the Certhur - born of a native species, with links to the pure elemental fire forged in their soul, and a destiny...on their adulthood, they bring the Apocalypse. The fire takes them, drives them to a world-navel - a place where the life of the planet can be touched, felt...and so they do, and the fire rises, consumes, and begins the long, slow renewing.
But what happens when one of these beings has their destiny denied, stymied?
Sherlina comes from a world that has finished...and should have burned six years ago. Her mother saw the signs, knew the portents, and took action. She kept her daughter brutally underfed, knowing that it would stunt her growth, prevent the coming of age, and hopefully buy her a few more years...or with fortune, centuries.
You see, Sherlina is the last daughter sired by that world's Ahriaz before his death - she is a succubus, though golden of hair and blue of eye. And in her soul a fire rages, fated to break free when she finally gains full and permanent maturity.
And her birthday comes sooner with every feeding...
Tamoriel has been able to keep the being known as Ceritha in check for now by draining the magic and "excess" soulstuff from Sherlina...but Ceritha has several times come very, very close to escaping, and the Thorn Tree is a world navel.
Shooter Koehl
Beautiful, smart, and fast, Lise Kohl was, nevertheless, not quite enough of any the above. A few hundredths short on her Olympic swim trials, not exotic enough to make it big as a model, and not quite smart enough to ever progress in movies beyond 'third girl in shower', she was always just one step behind fame, her whole life.
Enter Marci Raver.
Kohl was a fan of the madling chanteuse, and as her own career imploded had become something of a groupie, as much for the easy sex and drugs and illusion of popularity that surrounded the shows as for the eerie music. One fateful night, she stepped out of a club to get high- and missed Marci's final performance. And as a result, lived through the night.
Instantly, Kohl was famous as 'the Girl who Survived', in demand for tabloid press and TV everywhere. Even after the rush of soundbite celebrity faded, she managed to parlay it into a new career. Following in her 'role model's' footsteps, Lise became an infamously outre performance artist. Most of her performances consisted of competent covers of Marci's songs, followed by drug-soaked orgies during which she performed body modifications- tattoos, piercings, and scarifications- on herself and other members of the blitzed audience.
When Kohl learned of her icon's escape from the Zig, she followed her to the Isles. Attaching herself rather calculatingly to Hotshot Hendricks, one of Marci's new entourage, she found herself a place close to the woman she loves- and hates- most in all the world, the one who gave her a last chance at stardom, and at the same time set the bar so high she can never cross it.
Vain almost from birth and with no sense of restraint, thanks to the horrendously mixed signals received from her overinvolved mother and distant father, years of disappointment and failure have turned Shooter bitter, bitchy, and almost vicious. Hendricks seems to worship her for some inexplicable reason, but most of the rest of the crew loathes her. Exactly what Marci's thoughts are on her most rabid fan, noone knows for sure.
(Shooter got a very minor name change- the added 'e'- when her build was swapped from a Grav/Psi DOM to a Fortunata. Who knew they were really going to buff Doms?)
Tamoriel
Human, Demon, or something in between?
Tam doesn't let those questions bother her... most of the time. She feels better now, and her friendship with Sherlina (which is, in truth, far more then mere friendship by now) seems to have changed her some. Her slightly insane silliness is still there, but behind it is a well hidden, but deadly sharp and hard edge of responsibility and love.
While it is obvious that SOMETHING bad happened to what was originally an eight year old girl that vanished from a park with her parents, no one has yet discovered what her actual history is.
Tam has the ability to feed by consuming magic power from her surroundings like an imp (but more more quickly and efficiently) but has developed tendencies and power that resemble those of a succubus.
Despite her apparent teenage youth, she stepped up quite happily to defend the ship from the recent attack by Zarines army of shadow monsters (though she did it with a smile and a string of lame jokes).
Unbound Incubus
- coming soon!*
Unlight
What sets UNIT apart from other organizations of the same sort is not only their relentless pursuit of goals- it is their patience.
Consider: How does one keep a dictator's mad schemes in check without overt violence that might, in fact, make the situation even worse?
From within.
Meet Olya Kolchak- at least that's her name now. Night Widow Kolchak, as she is/was believed to be by Arachnos command. A talented martial artist, minor precog and telepath, frigidly efficient administrator.
UNIT agent-in-place. For well over a decade.
The daughter of the founder of UNIT, known only as The General, trainer of the young Callista Lazza, Kolchak has used her limited assets in the Isles and her own impressive skills ruthlessly to undercut and derail Arachnos' more grandiose schemes.
At last, however, her cell was betrayed from within, destroyed in the schism that set UNIT at war with itself- and with the Familia. Reluctantly, with great reservations, she has allied herself with her old student and her friends, still playing her games and laying her snares, and sticking to her basic objective: undermining the growth of Arachnos and Recluse's power.
Volva Leikn
Leikn is a Rikr Trol, which apparently means 'True Troll' in her language. She floated ashore and eventually was run across by the family. Ask most of the crew and their impression is that when she isn't below decks making loud hot love with her 'Valkyrie' Burner, she is above decks praying to every passing cloud.
The truth is that as a shaman and seer, Leikn communes directly with nature, and anyone who has watched her defending the ship doesn't take her presence as some kind of joke anymore...
Zange
(deceased?)
"Tiamat Lynn Kills Local Secuity!" Of course, it was soon uncovered that there was a lookalike on the loose, but why would someone look exactly like the radioactive feline? Zange looks like Tiamat because she IS Tiamat. Sort of. Different dimensions do exist, and of all the semi-parallel existences, one in particular came to an especially bad end. With her only loves dead or lost to her, and the world crumbling around her big furry ears, Tiamat fled into the last functioning portal in Pocket D. Popping out into another Pocket D, Tiamat found herself in an almost identical world that had not been destroyed. Yet. She met Vicki... a different Vicki, but the same person. She met this worlds version of Marci. She also met herself. Zange and Tiamat are the same person from two different streams of time, but somewhere in the differences they have found the similarities and have become fast friends. Looking at them, some people might even conclude that their closeness is a way of closing some gaping hole within each of their souls...
For more detailed information: Zange
(Alas, Zange was a lie, an extra-planar hunter named Zarine looking for a secret of great power held, all unknowing, by Tia Lynn. WitchArc's compassion for her mutant companion was nearly the undoing of all of them- the climactic battle between Tia and her faux twin damaged the ship heavily, laid waste to a section of Port Oakes, and almost cost Tia her life.
Zange has not been seen since...)
