Description
Name: Rikki Aurora Muse
Nickname: "Doc", "Aurora"/"Rora" (only by family or the rare confidant she has shared her full name with)
Age: 23
Race: Human
Faction: Formerly Ship's Doctor on the
Deadalus, currently attempting to find the good ship after being separated from it painfully too soon after the beginning of her contract's commencement.
Eyes: Dark Violet (Left) Incandescent Violet (Right)
Hair: Deep, fiery red, with spikes of midnight blue obscuring her face and dangling about her shoulders.
Skin: Pale, despite years of sailing the Cloudsea.
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 97lbs.
Build: Very thin and lithe, with a wiry frame toned from years of constant exertion. What little fat Rikki had when she first set out on the
Deadalus has been eaten away by the constant stress of finding enough work to get her to the next port, of trying to survive without having a place to sleep that she could truly call her own.
Physical Description: In the two or so years since Rikki got separated from her friends and fellow crew of the
Deadalus, she has gained several new scars and a few new tattoos. In addition to the fading scars on her arms, she has an ethereal mass of scar tissue surrounding her right eye with a few thin tendrils shooting above and below the eye. In place of her organic eye, however, is a prosthetic ocular device of her own contrivance. This allows her to see just as well if not better than the human eye, though it will occasionally become inoperative. These periods of inactivity can be linked to reasons including but not limited to: weather, strain on the device, and disruptions in the nearby Æther. The clockwerk eye is set into the socket as if Rikki had never lost her eye. Around her left eye is her trademark purple star tattoo, and a black rose coiled around a dagger sits on the lower part of her abdomen, the vines of the rose curl her entire waist with many of the thorns expertly depicted tearing into her flesh. Her latest tattoo is a very detailed caduceus with the snakes wrapping around the staff up the center of her spine and meeting upon her neck. As a result of her injuries during the disaster that separated Rikki from her companions, she also wears a mechanical brace around her left knee.
Title: Ship's Doctor
Experience: 23pts (+1 Agility, +2 Intellect, +1 Spirit)
Strength: 5
Agility: 5 (+1)
Intellect: 7 (+2)
Spirit: 6 (+1)
[I can edit this if need be.]
Personality
Likes: Sailing, healing, helping others, expanding her knowledge.
Dislikes: Boring people, being stuck below deck for long periods of time, broken promises, stubborn ignorance.
Fears: Not being able to save someone's life.
Personality Description: Rikki is very blunt with her feelings, though she never intends any harm with what she says. She is very chipper and animated, and can get a little vexing on her patients at times. She believes that conversation is the best medicine.This stems from her empathic nature, which often leads her to attempt to improve other people's lives. However, this nature is often also her downfall, for at times, she will become discomposed at the suffering of those who depend on her. Taking a very meticulous approach to the treatment of her patients, Rikki is almost always prepared for anything that may occur.
Equipment
Weapons: Daggers/scalpels (lots of these), clockwerk pistol, and a set of spiked brass knuckles
Clothing/Armor: Possessing a rather pragmatic nature, Rikki wears things that are comfortable and practical for her, which usually consists of a small, yet loose-fitting shirt, the Steam Punk equivalent of motorcycle leathers, and heavy black leather boots with the buckles ending at her knees. At times when she suspects potential combat or feels the need to remain a little more incognito, she wears a protective aviator cap.
In addition to her typical attire, Rikki wears few accoutrements:
- Mother's necklace; sent by Hunter in the last letter to serve as a momento of Aurora's past life
- a set of buckled leather bracers with burnt-in smatterings of motivational phrases shared between brother and sister during the more darker times of childhood; they were personally crafted by Hunter and accompanied the necklace and letter; Rikki cherishes these greatly and seldom removes them, since they serve as a daily reminder she still has family to reunite with that know her better than any outsider ever could
- protective goggles with purple-tinted lenses; always around her neck if she's not wearing them
Tools: A full surgeon's kit, replete with scalpels, sutures, and forceps, as well as other medical necessities for first-aid, medication, and nearly everything in between. If she doesn't have exactly what she needs, Rikki will improvise with anything on the ship.
History
Past: Born in the Central District of Dresh on the Eastern Wind to a barmaid and a drifting sailor, Rikki never truly knew her father. Shortly before her brother was born, Rikki's father left on a ship promising fame, fortune, and adventure. Left with a five year old girl to feed and an infant on the way, Rikki's mother did the best she could to keep her children healthy. With the rent skyrocketing in Central District, they had to move into the Lower District and her mother had to take any available source of pay in order to afford food and a babysitter for the baby, Hunter. Rikki was forced to go to school earlier than most children, though she excelled at it. The reason she did so well was because she couldn't stand seeing all the people (elves included) suffering in the filthy slums and alleys of the Lower District. On the day that she started school, the conversation she had with her mother on the walk to what was surely a five year-old's worst nightmare stuck with Rikki throughout the years:
It is early in the morning as the sun weakly filters into the main thoroughfare of the Undercity, doing little to combat the chill left by an evening shower. A woman worn out on life long before her prime all-but drags a small girl by the hand down the street, still yet bleary-eyed and protesting all the while. The little girl was forced into her Sunday Best, though it was obviously second-hand. Short, slightly pudgy legs were stuffed into neatly starched but faded white leggings, ending in very uncomfortable black vinyl strap dress shoes. The dress was what young 'Rora hated the most, however, with its 'itchy-ugly-smelly' lace sleeves, the 'stupid-stinking' roses all over the skirt, and the 'super-tight-help-I-can't-breathe' bodice.
“B-but Mama! Why do I have to go to school?” Aurora sniffled petulantly, tugging at the fiery pig-tail braids that painfully tugged at her scalp. Even at five, she had a head full of thick, unmanageable hair -it took her mother a good twenty minutes to even get it into the messy pigtails, amid shrieks and shouts of pain.
“You are old enough now, Aurora,” her mother replied with surprising calmness. “Every good little girl and boy has to go to school when they are old enough. Don't you want to grow up to be as smart as me or Daddy?”
“But Gregory across the hall is five, and he doesn't have to go...” She said defiantly, though she was wiping away tears on the sleeve of her dress. “I want to be as smart as you and Daddy, Mama. Forget Gregory -he's a stupid boy anyway! Where is Daddy? He should be here! It's my first day of school!”
“Daddy's sailing on the Cloudsea; he left to make us money so we can live somewhere nice and to feed you and Hunter,” the overstressed single mother of two answered with a weak smile and a cracked voice, immediately regretting the mention of the man who had yet to send a single stipend of gold or even a mere letter. It had been only six months since he left, but still she had some waning hope that they hadn't been forgotten.
“Oh...” Aurora's voice trailed off distractedly, grievances forgotten in the way young children always bounce from one extreme of emotion to the next. She didn't hear the break in her mother's voice, her violet eyes staring at everything and everyone they passed. Pointing to a group of homeless Elves and humans breaking down their mobile sleeping structures, 'Rora asked in a rather inquisitive manner, “Mama, why do those people live like that?”
“'Rora! It's rude to point,” the mother chided gently, pushing the little girl's hand back down. “Most of the people that live down here in the streets never finished their education, so they can't get a good enough job to pay for a home.”
“I will finish my ed-u-cation so I never-ever-ever-ever-ever have to live in the street and so I can help people like them!” The little girl exclaimed with passionate vindication. Her mother smiled wanly and spurred Aurora along the final block until they reached the school.
“Good luck, 'Rora! Mind your manners and remember to only speak when spoken to.”
Aurora, unnaturally quiet and reserved, stared her mother with glassy-eyed innocence and enquired while her mother fussed about with her dress and hair, “Mama? Is Daddy ever coming back?”
“Of course, Rikki, of course,” came the slow reply, her mother giving her a tight farewell hug in order to hide the single tear running down a cheek...
The rest of Rikki's early life was as good as one could hope for living in the Undercity. She had more than her fair share of fights, enough happy moments for her to retain a positive outlook on life, and the rest of the things one goes through while growing up. Unfortunately, the tentative peace of growing up was shattered when her mother finally married, and Rikki's world was turned upside-down. At fifteen, Rikki fled from the city of Dresh for reasons she still won't admit to this day.
After securing transport on the first ship that would carry her far away from her birthplace, Rikki found several books on applied field medicine that intrigued her vastly. Several days into the journey, the ship was attacked by pirates. After the criminals had made off with everything of value aboard the ship, Rikki found that she was one of the few passengers still able to move. Among the luckless was the vessel's doctor. Using scraps of sail canvas and parts of the damaged ship itself, she stabalized the doctor, and assisted him in saving as many of the other injured as was possible. The doctor, astonished by her uncanny intuition, offered to take Rikki on as his apprentice, and thus, her medical training began. Upon the completion of her two-year apprenticeship, the budding young student was rewarded by her mentor with a three-year scholarship to the medical university at Edelai.
Present: [Might edit this at some point, but I've taken too long on this bio already.]
- letter provides news of mother's death from a "less-than-refutable" disease that causes a painful revelation for her [This will definitely come about in the RP.]
