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 Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:00 pm
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 ---------------------------------------------  This diary is meant to be private; please contact the owner before posting. This Illusionary is NOT FOR SALE, so don't ask. Name: The Duchess of Kirkcaldy Gender: Female Illusionist: romesilk D.O.B: Febuary 10, 2007 Likes: unknown Dislikes: unknown Partial to: unknown |
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:03 pm
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This begins long before that, with one of the founding precepts of the
family. People are necessary. In order to live, in order to love, in order
to be happy and feel purpose. The crux of the problem is finding the right
person or persons.
Sometimes, in order to take care of yourself, you need someone else to
take care of.
Name: The Duchess of Kirkcaldy
Nickname(s): Cady, Kay
Kirkcaldy (the L is silent) is a town in Fife, Scotland. The Duchess of Kirkcaldy is not a real person, but a character in a Beatles song:
"The Duchess of Kirkcaldy, always smiling and arriving late for tea." Species: Illusionary
Nationality: Gaian?
Birthdate: manifested February 10, 2007; arrived March 22, 2007
Birthplace: Gaia
Occupation:
Physical Data
- Age: infant
- Height:
- Build:
- Hair: red, sleek and short (at least for now!)
- Eyes: clear sky blue
- Skin: light in color, with some odd dark red spots under her eyes
- Attire:
- Distinguishing Characteristics: "blood corn" markings under her eyes
Personal Data
- Hobbies:
- Likes:
- Dislikes:
- Favorite Color/s:
- Favorite Food/s: bananas (so far!)
- Sexuality: maybe when she's older
- Religion: Yuulani
- Politics:
- Education:
Personality:
Background:
Special Skills:
Weaknesses:
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:05 pm
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Six months ago, a choice was given. Bring a fallen comrade back from the
dead, or rewrite your own history.
If you could change anything in your past, would you do it? Would you
rewrite your experiences, your existence? What if you could save an entire
people from extinction through your actions? What price would you be
willing to pay?
 Name: n'Barit Kinmera
Nickname(s): Bart
Species: Yuul
Nationality: Thracian
Birthdate: 13 Fentith, 679th Rotation of Herod
Birthplace: Gharintown, Therax Province
Occupation: unemployed; fmr. Apprentice Barrigater
Physical Data
- Age: 31 Rotations, or 23 years; comparable to a human aged 17
- Height: 5' 7"
- Build: wiry and muscular, there isn't much meat on him
- Hair: light green
- Eyes: blue-green with murky brown edges
- Skin: modestly tan
- Attire: typically white and green shirts and pants
- Distinguishing Characteristics: Missing right arm and leg: his leg is a mechanical wood prosthetic and his arm bionic; two white circle marks on his left cheek
Personal Data
- Hobbies: cloudgazing
- Likes: cleanliness, tradition
- Dislikes: religions besides his own
- Favorite Color/s: green
- Favorite Food/s: tah'lek', a type of lizard indigenous to Yuul
- Sexuality: undetermined
- Religion: Yuulani
- Politics: National Conservative
- Education: graduate, Yuulani barrigater academy
Personality:
N'Barit's most defining feature is his stubbornness. Once he has an idea, there is nothing that can shake it from him. He holds on to things past the point of reason and very rarely takes counsel from anyone. His intractability can make him very difficult to talk with or relate to. He simply refuses to accept worldviews outside his own.
N'Barit was raised to be a leader, and in Yuul society, that means once you take a position you don't back out of it. If you take the wrong position or no position at all, you don't deserve to be a leader. The Yuul view decisiveness as a virtue greater than wisdom, and follow-through is a matter of greatest honor. N'Barit is nothing if not a thoroughly accurate representation of his people's society and values.
When he commits himself to something, n'Barit does so totally and completely. He is fearless once he has chosen a course of action. He will stand up to any enemy, no matter how numerous or strong, and persevere even under the worst odds. He expects more of himself than anyone has ever expected of him, and he accepts less. There is no such thing as good enough for n'Barit. He must always be better.
Traditionally, this stubbornness and determination has been both blessing and curse. Had it not been for his hard work, he never would have graduated from his schooling. His schoolmasters knew that, even though he did not have typical mastery of his powers when he graduated, that he possessed the discipline and drive to continue learning on his own.
At the same time, his stubbornness has prevented him from ever finding any measure of happiness. First, he was unhappy because he could not fulfill his oath of vengeance against the Lubellans, which he stubbornly clung to. His desire to see that oath done kept him alive when all others on his world died. Because of it, he was forced to walk his planet surrounded by dead bodies and the decay of his one great civilization.
Then, when he finally saw his vengeance oath fulfilled, he lost everything he had worked so hard to accomplish for himself and ruined his own life. No matter how many times he tries to convince himself, n'Barit cannot ever truly believe his sacrifice was worth it.
N'Barit is proud to a fault, of his heritage and who he is. Honor is extremely important to n'Barit. Even though he made choices that led to personal loss, he remains resolute with the knowledge that his choices were the honorable ones. N'Barit would sooner starve than betray his personal honor.
One of the things hardest for most people to understand is n'Barit's continued pride in his people, people who exiled him for saving their lives and whose beliefs state that he is the lowest scum imaginable. Instead of turning away from the society which shuns him, he persists in his loyalty to it. He continues to believe in the precepts of his upbringing, even when those precepts mean hating himself.
N'Barit is very deeply religious. He was trained to be a priest to his people. He continues in his zealotry even when his religion calls him "unclean" and bars him from Paradise or participating in sacred rituals. He is incredibly intolerant of any other religions, particularly monotheistic ones which seem to make no room his own beliefs. When the subject of religion comes up, he is quick to launch into hateful diatribe, decreeing followers of other religions as false and evil. He makes no friends with these speeches.
Cleanliness is one of the cornerstones of his religion, and n'Barit despises people who are messy or dirty. He permits himself to be around or in contact with filth and dirt only because he is unworthy of the ceremonial cleanliness to which he once adhered. Touching garbage is a sign of his shame and unworthiness. He permits no such thing from Kirkcaldy. As permitted, n'Barit still engages in ritual cleansing ceremonies whenever possible and is very fastidious when his situation allows.
He also eschews earthly possessions, believing in owning only what is absolutely necessary to life. Most Yuul live in self-inflicted poverty, and n'Barit's goes beyond the usual. He owns precisely two sets of clothing, a small knife, a waterskin, and a blanket. He never sleeps on anything finer than dirt.
Though poor, stubborn, proud, self-hating, intolerant, and a zealot, n'Barit has his good points. Because of his history, he has an immense capacity for understanding and recognizing pain and suffering in others. He is very protective of Kirkcaldy, honorable, and is an excellent listener. He believes strongly in education. He would never intentionally hurt an innocent.
Part of n'Barit's problem is that he grew up without any real parental figures. He was raised in a school with very strict teachers, subjected to training which most of us would consider abusive both physically and mentally, especially to young children. He never played as a child, never laughed. He's never met his actual parents or had any meaningful personal relationships prior to leaving his world. He was trained to be his people's idea of the perfect leader and warrior. Having lost that role, it's been difficult for him to learn to be anything else.
N'Barit is attempting, through moving to Gaia, to redefine himself completely and become something else. It scares him, but he is determined to succeed. Perhaps, with Kirkcaldy's help, he wil succeed.
Background:
The moment of n'Barit's birth was a cause for great celebration. During her pregnancy, n'Barit's mother showed signs of carrying a Tuulani child. Tuulani possess superpowers, capable of manipulating energies in the world around them. Only about one in every four thousand births is a Tuulani.
At about six months of age, n'Barit was taken from his parents to begin his training as a barrigater. Part mage, part magistrate, part priest, and part governor, barrigaters are the political, spirutal, and military leaders of the Yuul.
The school was rigidly disciplined, even abusive. Tasked with training the next generation of leaders, there was no time for pleasantries or play. N'Barit was taught the art of war and the science of law. He lived by the school's schedule and raised according to its laws. Only about half of the enrolled students ever graduate, and n'Barit worked hard to achieve the honor.
The most important part of n'Barit's schooling involved learning the use of his Tuulani powers. Every Tuulani has a slightly different class of power. Some can control light, some fire or heat energy, while others create sparks or unleash terrifying sonic attacks. N'Barit was discovered to possess a rare subclass of kinetics: shielding.
At the time of n'Barit's birth, the previous shield-type Tuulani had been dead almost ten rotations. Because of this, n'Barit had no direct teacher from which to learn, and instead had to teach himself from notes and writings left behind by others. This hindered his training, and at graduation, he was the only child unable to make a demonstration of his abilities before the master. Because his subtype was so rare, the masters decided to allow him to graduate. His class of powers was simply too important to lose, and it was thought that with several rotations to practice and hone his skills, n'Barit would grow into the full potential of his powers. So, at his eleventh rotation (a rotation later than usual, and about eight years of age), n'Barit became a junior barrigater.
N'Barit was sent to the somewhat remote Telmat province and assigned to a senior barrigater to complete his training. The elder barrigater was in his twilight years, old and wise but somewhat irreverant. N'Barit continued to explore his powers, spending hours each day in meditation, prayer, and practice, self-directed and -inflicted torture so that he might one day become a full barrigater.
Barely a rotation after his assignement, the Telmat Province became the landing point for a group of alien invaders, the Lubellans.
The Lubellans were a slaver race, with massive slave armies beyond the Yuul's imagining. Lubellan technology included spaceflight and far surpassed the Yuu, who had yet to discover electricity. Additionally, the Lubellans possessed abilities similar to the Tuulani: they could manipulate energy.
Because they landed in his province, n'Barit was the first Yuul to come against a Lubellan. He still had many years to go before he would master his shielding powers, but the enemy commander underestimated him. The Lubellans were unfamiliar with shielding abilities, having no shielders among their own people, and n'Barit took advantage of this oversight, managing to kill the commander of the exploratory force. In the process, n'Barit lost his foot.
Even though he was a Tuulani, even though he was a barrigater, even though he was only a child and had fought in defense of his planet, the loss of his foot made n'Barit "disbodied." As per Yuul law, he was outcast for the unclean disfigurement, forced to go to the rocky desert where the other disbodied outcasts lived.
When the exploratory force lost its commander, the Lubellans simply sent more soldiers to deal with the problem. N'Barit swore to destroy them for shaming him and continued to fight to the best of his ability, but it wa s ahopeless war. The Lubellans outclassed the Yuul in every area.
Rather than face subjugation, the Yuul decided to commit mass suicide and rest their fates in their religious beliefs. N'Barit tried to argue against this, but he was disbodied and no one would even hear his words. He could not even join the suicide, for he was disbodied and unclean, and his oath of vengeance prevented it.
Over ninety-nine percent of the poulation committed suicide in the space of two days. The Lubellans, not having anyone to enslave, simply got back into their ships and left. They had no interest in the planet beside slaves. Yuul had no strategic benefits or resources that interested the Lubellans. It did not even have what the Lubellans considered a desirable climate.
N'Barit was left, alone, to wander the deserted streets and bury the dead with all his hurt and his rage. There was nothing he could do to retaliate against the Lubellans and fulfill his oath, no way for him to leave his planet. He scraped by on a diet of vermin and berries for nearly half a dozen rotations until someone else came to Yuul. A Praetorix.
The Praetorix convinced n'Barit to leave with her and extracted him. She also extracted one other from his dimension: the enemy comander he had killed, Jaden Amn. Upon learning this, n'Barit was furious. When the Praetorix did not allow him to slay Amn a second time, n'Barit decided to leave her house and go wandering through dimensions. He went to the Wilds.
A vast, untamed cacophany of worlds, the Wilds were full of fantastic dangers. N'Barit took his rage out on all manner of monsters, in the process finally reaching the full extent of his powers. Even though he only had one foot, he was a great warrior.
He was eventually felled by the tiniest of adversaries, a virus. he was forced to crawl back to the Praetorix and her family, where a nurse by the name of Sally nursed him back to health. Sally became the only person n'Barit trusted. Because of her, n'Barit decided to stop his wandering and stay for a change. He became a member of the Fleet and his abilities were put to good use in the war against Deity Command.
He had everything he needing: a purpose, respect, friends, and more. Sometimes, he even smiled or laughed. But he was not happy.
Then, in the summer of 2006, the Conference happened. A thousand souls, including n'Barit, were given the chance to decide the meaning of reality for the next ten years. Half an hour later, they had a peace treaty with Deity Command and a choice between two wishes. One, bring back from the dead a single comrade who had died during the war with Deity Command. Two, rewrite your own history.
N'Barit decided to change his past. He was willing to give an arm and a leg to save his people.
So he did. Instead of losing just a foot, n'Barit lost both his arm and his leg, and in the process, saved his people.
But some things could not be changed. Even though he had saved his people, he was still disbodied as a result. They cast him out into the rocky desert and never spoke his name again.
His people saved, n'Barit thought at last he would be happy, but he was not. Without his arm, he no longer had his full shielding powers, which he had spent the better part of his life perfecting. Instead of finding himself through his sacrifice, he became lost and inconsolable. His entire past became painful to him.
What he needed was a fresh start, away from every vestige of his memories, away from anything that could remind him of the past. He asked the praetors for their help and they offered him the chance to move to Gaia. N'Barit left everything behind, keeping only the clothes on his back, and went to Gaia.
Special Skills:
Though he does not have access to his full shielding powers, n'Barit can still create small, weak shields with his left hand.
Like all Yuul, n'Barit has an organ which can sense solar flare activity or high radiation. It evolved due to a high frequency of dangerous solar flare activity in his homeworld's past: creatures which were able to sense the solar flare activity and seek shelter survived better. Solar flare activity on Yuul has since diminished to more reasonable levels, but the vestigial ability remains.
Weaknesses:
N'Barit is functionally illiterate. He has a biochip which allows him to communicate fluently in English, but the writing system of the Yuul language is so far removed from English there was no way it could be converted in his brain.
Though he has a bionic arm, his leg is not bionic and works with a simple swing-lock mechanism. He chose this because it is a system he can repair or replace on his own, whereas if something goes wrong with his bionic arm, he has to see a specialist. Unfortunately, the leg is not as intuitive as the bionic system, and n'Barit has never been particularly keen on physical therapy. As a result, he generally uses crutches to get around, though he can manage without them for short distances.
N'Barit has a different visual range than a human. He can see into the ultraviolet, but cannot correctly distinguish the color red.
He despises getting dirty so much it's notable as a weakness.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:06 pm
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There is one more person I must note, and though he has not entered into
this tale quite yet, he is nevertheless an important part of it. As all
praetors and imperators know, Great Things come in Threes.
Name: Anthony Arthur Andrews (which he can never remember)
Nickname(s): Double-A, or Daub; very rarely "Bunny"
Species: human, or close enough
Nationality: Swiss
Birthdate: March 4, 1639 ET
Birthplace: Geneva, Switzerland, Earth
Occupation: fmr. temporal regulator (limited)
Physical Data
- Age: 30, abouts
- Height: 5' 10.5"
- Build: thin, gawky
- Hair: ruddy brown, short, usually messy unless he spots a mirror and fixes it
- Eyes: a very unsettling shade of bright orange
- Skin: medium pale
- Attire: usually a mix of various European men's fashions dated from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, his area of specialty
- Distinguishing Characteristics: noted for having a "scrunchy face"
Personal Data
- Hobbies: reading, card games
- Likes: history, costumes, anachronism, coffee (which he drinks far, far too much of), Classical music, BlackAdder
- Dislikes: too many Ems/Sporks in the same place, sweet foods
- Favorite Color/s: brown? red? orange? purple? What day of the week is it?
- Favorite Food/s: liverwurst and red onion sandwiches, tea-soaked lemon wedges
- Sexuality: heterosexual
- Religion: atheist
- Politics: Roushian Socialist
- Education: Bachelor's degree with distinction, Oxford University; vocational certification with Honors, College of Temporal Regulation
Personality:
Daub is described as "manic" by casual acquaintance and involved party alike. He barrels through his life with reckless speed, jumping into things with little forethought, following his instincts and gut reactions even when they lead to cliff's edge.
This is hardly the type of personality typical of someone charged with making sure history is not rewritten, but almost paradoxically, Daub seems to possess the most uncanny luck for somehow getting things right despite leaping forward without looking. He has a great mind for improvisation, so even when things don't go as planned, he manages to end up on top. He's a quick thinker, maybe even the quickest. He constantly responds to changes in the world around him, adapting and shifting.
His over-the-top behavior can rub people the wrong way, but Daub rarely cares what others think. As a temporal regulator, it was typical of him to leave things before people could get the chance to retaliate against him for anything. This bred a certain careless attitude, since if you don't have to worry about the repercussions of your actions, you can do whatever you like with impunity.
His antics started as a child. His father was distant, his mother absent, and he clamored for attention he never seemed to get unless it was a teacher or headmaster disciplining him. The tomfoolery was also a clever disguise against the sadness in his heart: so long as he kept people laughing, they would never notice it was there. He grew up generally lonely, with only his dream of becoming a temporal regulator to sustain him. (Well, that and the joy that can only come out making most of the authority figures in your life look like complete morons in front of your schoolmates.)
Daub has a fantastic imagination. It shows in his adaptability and the inventiveness of his many tricks. At the same time, he often has trouble distinguishing imagination from reality, a fact made all the more difficult when you have grazed the surface of a dozen times and lived a hundred disguises. He used to be able to distinguish fantasy and reality. Then his reality became too bizarre and painful for him to handle, and now Daub flits through life without knowing quite who he is. He's ephemeral, fleety, switching between modes of behavior with very little control.
The reality Daub tries not to face is the weight of his guilt. He lost the woman he loves, and twice his mother, and blames himself (not incorrectly) for both losses.
Daub can be wonderful and brilliant sometimes, but more often than not he's simply uncontrolled and crazy. He's lost his grip on his life and is spiraling out of control. He needs desperately to find something to hang on to before his frequently self-destructive behavior consumes him.
Background:
Daub grew up not knowing his mother, who died shortly after his birth. His father was a professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva. Daub grew up in a boarding school in Cambridge, only seeing his father at holidays and on special occasions. As a child, he thought that if only his mother were alive, everything would be perfect. His father never answered any questions about the subject and there were no pictures of her anywhere. The only thing he had to remember his mother by was a music box with a crack on the side. From his birth certificate, he knew her name was Emily. When he was about four, he decided that he wanted to be a temporal regulator so that he could go back in time and meet his mother.
Daub was a fairly good student, bright but troubled. He was the class clown, always pulling that stupid stunt to make his fellows laugh so they wouldn't notice how much pain he was in. He egged the headmaster's car, then later the headmaster. He stole one teacher's speech and rewrote words in strategic places. Had it not been for the fact he was a top student and his father a very prominent and famous professor, he would probably have been expelled.
By the time he was sixteen, Daub was resolved to the fact that he would never meet his mother, because interfering in your own life is against the laws of time, but he still wanted to be a temporal regulator. He studied history at Oxford, specializing in Europe, seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. He did his postgraduate work at the College of Temporal Regulation in Geneva and completed the examination to become a certified temporal regulator with the Agency.
As a regulator, Daub was responsible for preventing malicious changes to the timeline. The Agency monitored the past and whenever fluctuations were noticed, dispatched a regulator to deal with the problem. Mostly this involved fixing damage done by tourists and temporal vandals. Daub was meticulous about the rules, never revealing information about the future, always striving for historical accuracy.
Then he met Lucy. A fellow regulator, she specialized in European and American history, 1800-1970, so their specialties overlapped in 1800s Europe. They met through their work. Lucy was actually born in 1500 ET, a hundred and forty years before Daub, but at the time of their meeting they were nearly the same age, close as they could estimate. (Temporal regulators usually lose track of their age, as they may spend days or months on an assignment, and then jump back to thirty seconds after they left. This also gives them very short lifespans relative to their own time, as they experience an average of seven years per year of service.)
Lucy brought light to Daub's life. Smart, funny, pretty, and someone who understood the difficulties of being a temporal regulator. Daub called her Diamond, a reference to the Beatles song she was named after, and she called him Bunny, in reference to both his nickname, Double-A (as in Energizer batteries), and his manic personality. As good as they were alone, they were even better together, and they fell completely in love.
When their assignment ended, they were forced to bid tearful goodbyes, as it was unlikely they would ever see each other again. Only, they both starting looking specifically for 1800s Europe missions and saw each other again almost immediately. Happily, they realized that so long as they both stuck to 1800s Europe, they would probably see each other a lot, and their romance continued. So long as it did not disrupt the flow of time, there was no harm in them doing so.
The time he spent with Lucy was simply electrifying. Daub felt happier and more alive than he ever had. Unfortunately, Lucy became pregnant and had to abort the child before it caused any problems, as there was the smallest chance the child might be Daub's ancestor given the lack of data on his mother. Lucy never quite recovered from the experience despite Daub's efforts to cheer her. At best, he could make her laugh through the tears.
After the mission during which she had the abortion, Lucy stopped taking 1800s Europe missions for a short while, but then she was back. She was still upset about the abortion, but she loved working with Daub too much to give it up.
On an otherwise routine mission in 1831 AD, Daub and Lucy were tasked with stopping a fugitive from their era. In the course of chasing him, Lucy was shot. She was wounded so badly she could not use her own modulator, and the modulator required someone actively tuning it for at least three minutes. Daub was faced with a choice. If he stayed to activate and tune Lucy's modulator, the criminal would escape and further damage the timeline, perhaps irreparably. He chose to go after the criminal. He succeeded in apprehending the man, but by the time he got back, Lucy was dead.
Daub was distraught. He could not even send Lucy's body back to the future where she might be saved, for regulations stated that when an agent died on mission, the proper thing to do was incinerate the body to prevent temporal corruption. So again he did the right thing, and incinerated the woman he loved.
Devastated, Daub shuffled through his next few missions, going through the motions but totally devoid of the joy he had once felt traversing history. He was having a nervous breakdown, but no one could distinguish it from his usual manic personality, and he had no friends who knew him well enough to tell the difference.
He decided to kill himself on his next mission. It was a boring, routine mission: shadow a group of tourists across Europe for three months, but it started off in 1790s Germany, a decade Daub had always liked, which seemed as good a place to kill himself as any.
On the first night of the mission, he was preparing to jump off a building when one of the tourists, called Spork, approached him. She managed to get him talking, and once he had started he could not stop. Feeling some sort of a connection to her, Daub told her his entire life story and she listened. She did not leave him that entire night, nor the next day when the tour commenced. Instead, she stayed with him and they continued to talk.
They talked about everything, from the great questions of philosophy to food. When Daub mentioned he loved liverwurst sandwiches with red onion, Spork started making him sandwiches and sneaking them into his coat pockets. During the day, he'd reach into his pocket, usually to check his watch, and find her sandwich there.
She wasn't Lucy, but he loved her all the same. She was shy and cute and laughed at all his jokes, even the really bad ones. She was well-attuned to his moods and knew when to cheer him up and when to let him be sad. More than anything, she stayed at his side, so that he never felt alone and never had the chance to try and jump off any buildings.
They were in Austria when they passed a shop selling music boxes, and Daub insisted they go inside. There, he found a set of music boxes just like the one his mother had left for him, only without the cracked side. When he opened one, it played the same tune, so he bought it.
He and Spork also had a conversation involving the laws of temporal regulation. During the conversation, Spork asked Daub if there were ever any situations under which he thought a person should be allowed to change time, for example, to save someone's life. Daub's answer was a resounding no, and he went on to say that he could never forgive that sorn of criminal.
It was the last day of the three-month tour. Daub was trying to prepare himself to say goodbye to Spork, only to his surprise, it turned out she was not part of the tour group. The tour group had assumed she was a temporal regulator like Daub -- it was not uncommon for regulators to show up in pairs, as Daub and Lucy often had. Daub was still trying to process this information when three regulators appeared and announced that Spork was under arrest. They also used her real name. Emily. Spork was Daub's mother.
Somehow, Spork knew that Daub was going to kill himself that first night and she went back in time to save his life. How she came into that information was never discovered, but merely possessing the information was crime enough. Spork had compounded her guilt by travelling through time to change events. She did not protest to the charges or try to escape. She did not do or say anything, merely stood silent as the charges were read. The penalty for her crime was death.
Daub was too stunned to speak. He had been preparing to give the music box to Spork as a farewell present, but in his shock he dropped it, and the side cracked before he handed it to her. Daub was sent back to his own time without ever saying anything more to Spork. He was put on indefinite hiatus from his job, but not before he managed to get his hands on the sealed files involving Spork's trial.
He learned the terrible truth. Spork had gotten a stay of execution because she was pregnant, and the Temporal Authorities would not murder an unborn child when doing so would corrupt the timeline. While awaiting her execution, she was involved in a study on temporal crimes being conducted by a psychology team from the University of Geneva, a team which involved the man Daub knew as his father. They had a paper marriage while she was incarcerated so that he would gain custody of the child.
Worse, Daub was born five and a half months after his mother's incarceration, and whether Spork had been pregnant before traveling back in time was not known. Genetic tests were inconclusive. There was a chance Daub was his own father.
Daub tried to reconcile these facts but his mind could not handle it, and he came down with temporal fracture disorder, his brain unable to sort his memories into any sort of timeline. He did not leave his apartment for over a month and barely ate. At some point, he either fell asleep, knocked himself unconscious, or just fainted from lack of eating. When he woke up he was somewhere else and feeling much better.
Until Spork showed up, anyway. Only it wasn't Spork, it was someone who looked and sounded like her. And then there was another apparent Spork clone, and Daub decided he had quite lost his mind. The two Spork clones said he had to help them fight an enemy called Deity Command, and, deciding to play along with his delusion, Daub as he was told. He took the tools they gave him and went off to fight, never quite believing any of it was real and surviving mostly out of dumb luck. He figured if he had lost his mind, he may as well have fun with it. He earned a well-deserved reputation as a dangerous wild card.
After some months of this, the Spork clones said he could stop fighting, because some other Spork clones in some other universe had negotiated a peace treaty, which meant the war was over. Furthermore, they didn't really want him around anyway, so would he mind very much going to live with the other Spork clones on the other side of the mirror?
It was impossible for Daub to even begin to understand, but he went along with it. Thus, Daub came from the Mirror Universe into this one and joined the Imperium. He was given a house, and suddenly people seemed to care a lot about what happened to him instead of just sending him out to fight, and life calmed down a bit. He even made a friend or two.
It did not begin to repair his pain and suffering. For that, Daub needed...
Special Skills: Speaks very good German and French, acceptable Italian, a smattering of useless Russian, fluent Scots and English, and a smattering of other languages found in the British Isles.
Weaknesses: Daub has trouble remembering things, most especially anything related to time or date. He has trouble sorting out sequences of events. He sometimes hallucinates, especially if he has forgotten to eat recently. He is allergic to pollen and bees and highly susceptible to the flu virus.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:46 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:50 pm
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Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: She's interesting!n'Barit: Dirty, unmannered, disrespectful, totally annoying whelp!Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: She seemed nice!n'Barit: (snappy mean retorts forthcoming)Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: He seems like maybe fun! I didn't really get to meet him because of n'Barit... sweatdrop n'Barit: Annoying little brat with a weak mother. Will probably grow up to be a ****.Daub: ...no opinion...NikomasKirkcaldy: She got between me and indyadin! D:n'Barit: Words cannot express my anger for this person. Instead, I will use interpretative dance. *smashes a banana*Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Quote:  Kirkcaldy: ..no opinion..n'Barit: ..no opinion..Daub: ...no opinion...Lixxie Kirkcaldy: I don't know.n'Barit: Actually a redeemable person. Maybe.Daub: ...no opinion... Grim Kirkcaldy: He's really big! He looks like he could be neat and fun!n'Barit: KEEP IT AWAY FROM ME.Daub: ...no opinion... |
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:01 pm
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 Emperial, a. k. a. "Greyhaven Em"
N'Barit's friend and former magistrix, Greyhaven Em possesses an innate undertanding of n'Barit and has been working hard to try and make him happy. N'Barit seems to like her more than the other Ems because she is an imperatrix and not a praetorix: she does not attempt to comfort him or interfere in his life, merely does what n'Barit requests of her. Despite a somewhat hands-off approach to things, she cares deeply for n'Barit.
She is also friends with Daub, as she was the one who "rescued" him from Em the Black. As with n'Barit, she makes no attempt to interfere in Daub's life. She is merely there when he needs her to be, usually as a sympathetic ear.
Greyhaven Em is the writer of n'Barit's story, and therefore Kirkcaldy and Daub's as well.
Jaden Amn
The Lubellan commander n'Barit killed and then met again in the Imperium, and the person n'Barit hates more than anything else in the universe. It doesn't help that in addition to being Lubellan, Amn is also arrogant and mean. He has no real malice towards n'Barit, but also no affection. He finds n'Barit annoying. Every few months, n'Barit tries to kill Jaden. He never succeeds, as Amn is smarter and stronger than n'Barit. The only reason n'Barit was able to kill him in the first place was because Jaden underestimated n'Barit's abilities: Jaden never makes the same mistake twice. He may be arrogant, but he is not stupid.
Sally
One of the three great "mother" figures in the Family, Sally takes care of n'Barit on those occasions when he is too ill to take care of himself, and she is the only person n'Barit tolerates tending to him. No-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, and persistant, Sally is headstrong enough to take n'Barit on and has earned a degree of respect from him over the years. She's wise enough to know that the best way to deal with n'Barit is to let him rattle on until he has exhausted his point, treat him facetiously, and then make her own point again, at which point he usually cooperates because he would rather not tick Sally off.
Sally is a pediatrician in private practice, which affords her plenty of time to spend with her husband of five years, Max, and their two-year-old daughter Zenobia Madeline.
Em the Black
Greyhaven Em's direct counterpart from the mirror universe, Black was in charge of the praetorians and set policy for the Imperium in the mirror universe. These policies included using Daub as a pawn in the war. Unlike the Ems on this side of the mirror, Black cares nothing for her subordinates and enjoys toying with their lives. She personally sent Daub on missions without regard for his safety or life. When the mirror universe and "real" one intersected, she was all too happy to get rid of Daub, however, she periodically shows up to play with her discarded "toy." Her lieutenant and near-constant companion is E. J. Garmondsway, the notorious pirate.
Other Figures of Note
Lucy
Daub's true love. Daub blames himself for her death. Lucy was fun-loving and free-spirited. She was a time traveller like Daub. She was named after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
Spork
Daub's mother, who died just after he was born. Daub met her while time travelling shortly after Lucy's death and fell in love with her, not knowing she was his mother. Had he not fallen in love with her, he would have committed suicide, so she saved his life. Unfortunately, she also broke the laws of time, and was therefore executed shortly after giving birth to Daub, who then grew up without knowing his mother.
Black Lily
Daub's former praetorix, she served Black Em. Apathetic, she had little interest in Daub and rarely even noticed he was alive. Her real universe counterpart is Lily Atreidon-Pierrot.
Max
Sally's husband, who is at least as ornery and grumpy as n'Barit. Max and n'Barit hate each other, and if it weren't for the affection they both have for Sally, they probably would have killed each other years ago. Max is twenty years his wife's senior, an ex-Army commander with the scars to prove it, and he loves his wife and daughter more than anything else in the universe. He spoils them both to the best of his ability.
Zenobia Madeline, aka Madwin/Maddie
Sally and Max's daughter, a veritable terror at two years old, and source of many headaches, even for her adoring parents. N'barit cannot stand to be around Zenobia and it is his greatest fear that Kirkcaldy might grow p to someday be Zenobia.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:02 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:06 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:07 pm
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