Aretha

Zekiran

Info


Created
2 years, 8 months ago
Creator
Zekiran
Favorites
0

Profile


(logos, etc)
Name: Aretha
Gender: Female, Pansexual
Age/DOB: unknown, 2200s on her Earth
Origin: Vault (Fallout) Earth, born in Vault 101 near Washington DC, however lived in New Vegas after traveling west
Family: No known children on her home Earth, but has a long-term relationship with Veronica there, and is known to be 'quite close' with numerous others including Ghouls and Supermutants. Yes, 'close'. Has a spliced daughter, Janice, with Matt, who lives in Rapture, but will certainly come visit in Vegas now and then. Granddaughter Ursula. Currently RY10 has two clones, Dejanira and Trinity, working back east
Other: Had been the leader of New Vegas for several years, and before that led a good number of assaults on various factions in DC and Boston, the Carolinas, and finally heading west. She's been as far west as the coast of San Francisco, and as far north as Anchorage Alaska - though... that was simulated, does that count? Also of note, she spends time in Paragon City, or more accurately Praetoria, once those genrehopping folks help get portals running in her New Vegas hotel
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 140, absolutely all muscle, with great torso and arm strength, looks considerably more petite than she actually is
Hair: dark brown to reddish-black, natural afro but generally straightened and kept short as shown; definitely picks up much more red in natural sunlight
Eyes: light, clear brown, almond shaped, often under perfectly clipped brows and a touch on the angry side
Appearance: medium to dark brown skin, plentiful scars, but rarely seen; has a broad, somewhat flat face, with a wide nose and full wide lips; though she has access to a lot of outfits, she does prefer the combat gear shown, including the Chinese Stealth Suit, and the light armor swiped from the Brotherhood of Steel, mostly in shades of white or silver, as she likes how it shows off her skin
Genetic Abilities: according to Melissa, Aretha is 'remarkably durable' and coming from an immortal who regenerates that's saying something. While she is not Vortally active in any particular way, Aretha has a certain 'sense' about her that she knows when there's something weird going on -and around the Rookery that's all the time.
Icarus Processing: None, though she would likely benefit and has had processing done before in her world's Black Mesa facility that increased her agility, strength, and lifespan

Image Credits: Bethesda/Obsidian (Fallout) / City of Heroes

note that some links won't work they're all local

 
Skills or Profession: Aretha has done a lot of things in her life, from a basic Vault-dwelling education to her escape and travel around the DC area, survival skills come easy for her, she navigates through ruins like nobody's business. She is adept with technology, and prefers a hands-on approach to it, able to fix machinery though not electronics. Also she's a weapons-master of high degree, able to use rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns and other ranged weaponry, though she vastly prefers melee weapons up to and including swords and maces, having an electrified sword, and a 'power fist' to do devastating damage in hand to hand combat. Accordingly, she is also quite adept with armor, its upkeep and choosing parts for it, and stealth-suit care. It's as close to electronics as she normally gets, though, and anything more complicated than that suit she'll leave to a more focused expert. However all of that physicality aside, Aretha is a magnificent speaker and mediator - she can talk her way through 90% of the things she finds, and when she must resort to combat she is just as to the point and accurate as her words are.
Personality: She will 'try anything once... or twice' - and in that way she's learned quite a bit about both herself and the world around her, and its people. Smart, capable, and energetic, even though she's settled down in New Vegas she reliably heads off now and again to make sure that the area is kept clear of dangers, and goes out on meet-and-greets frequently to other cities in the NCR and Great Khan territories. She's a consummate flirt, and so far as anyone can tell literally anything that has a mind of its own is fair game for her affections. Though she does deeply love Veronica, they both know that any family they make will have to rely on... donations... Or perhaps, that Melissa girl can splice the two of them up? That would just make Veronica's day*.
*i see what you did there
Events or History: Born in Vault 101 near Washington DC, Aretha was expected to follow in her father's footseps until he ... stepped out of the Vault and into the wasteland beyond. Aretha did follow: helping him free the area of dangerous radiated water, and giving the locals hope once more. With the threat of incursions from factions of the Brotherhood nullified or at least peacable enough there, Aretha headed west. Over the course of at least two years, she finally dragged herself into New Vegas, and did quite a few amazing things there. Putting herself in harms way proved her worth to a great number of the different factions simmering over the location, and at last she rid them of their self-proclaimed overlord Mr House. She also visited Big Mountain Research Facility... that world's Black Mesa, where Mad Science was done to her - or with her, she didn't exactly protest too much with having implants and replacement parts put in. Eventually though, she did go back to the Lucky 38 and survey her territory... And then, Paxton and his weird friends literally dropped into her lap - starting up her desire to go out on adventures and continue righting wrongs and seeking new friendships. Even she isn't sure where their dimensions overlap and where they end, because Big Mountain is a crater, and Black Mesa is still pointing upwards... But apparently with a dragon and the Convocation people backing her technology, along with liberal doses of Vault-Tec equipment, she can flip between them like turning on a light. She has learned how to adjust the settings on her tech to show up to places as varied as they come.
Though she isn't there full time, she does instruct classes at Carramba High, instructing Thriving In A Post-Apocalyptic Dystopia 1,6 and Martial Arts and Stealth for Deselection Practitioners 3, 8. It's likely because of this that she's been tapped for further contact with the Rookery as well as for the Color Guard's next generation.
In RY8, Silence came to her, and this cemented her relationship with the Rookery proper.
Currently, Aretha is attempting to set up a new location for refugees in what she continually refers to as 'The Mojave Conglomerate', whatever that is, and with dragons settling with her, it's only a matter of time before the Combine is rousted farther and farther west from the desert. If her territory is considered 'on the Rookery', it demarks the north-western edge of their actual North American protected area. Typically, however, it isn't counted toward their holdings, and won't, until such a Conglomerate is physically present in both Vault Earth and the Rookery (this does happen around RY14ish, when there are sufficient locals being searched for dragons). When her Vault-based locale is cleared and ready, it's highly likely that the Lanes and whoever else is capable of doing it, will move it to their Rookery world, replacing whatever had been there (which is absolutely in ruins and quite bad off) outright. Whether the inhabitants of the MoCon will like that, no one really knows...
Due to the needs of the Rookery expanding both on their world and Vault Earth, decisions were made to clone Aretha in order to bring her expertise back to the east coast. She is no stranger to the weirdness around this process, and was quite relaxed with the appearance of two new versions of herself: Dejanira and Trinity. They each are slightly different but have her memories and skill sets. Together they have begun to patrol a wide swath of the northeast Commonwealths, from the Pitt through Acadia, and down toward Point Lookout to the south-east. Deja works on recruiting and setting up meetings with potential candidates as well as settlers, while Trinity is responsible for maintaining their new 'above ground Vault' populace. Levi still keeps the peace in the Institute there, but his other-dimensional duties have begun taking him away from the Vault dimension, and as such they're looking into what to do with the Institute's leadership of the Commonwealth.
Dragon
Name: Silence
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium 10' s / 55' l / 90' ws
Colors: face, neck, body, limbs and tail basic color is a dusty greenish-grey; belly and neck scales olive drab; cell-inset scales on body, limbs, tail and face slightly brighter yellowish-grey green; dorsal armor, head armor, tops of legs and down body, tail, and dorsal spines and fins all unbelievably dark black with tiny pinpoint stars in brilliant white; wingsails and tail spade nebula olive through midnight black with teeny stars, they always look like there's a light faintly trying to shine through them, but it's actually just the reflections, both under and backs of wings have this effect; wing claws light grey-green, feet claws black; eyes brilliant yellow-white
Features: Leaf-Night Hybrid, Leaf Dominant in all forms but powers and some appearance
Powers: Winged Flight, strong command of heavy weather, including dust storms and sleet alike, make Silence an impressive flier. But he's also completely quiet while flying including takeoffs and landings, the most you'll ever hear is a faint rustling like wind through treetops half a block away. In stable, calm weather, he can carry several human-sized people or things, and do so with a gentle, even gait. If needed, he can speed around, though that's usually at the cost of some stability or care to where exactly he's flapping. Tree branches get clipped, brick corners might get a bit dusted. But he'll get you safely through a fire fight, that's for sure.
Communication, his Nightwing grandsire clearly influenced his extremely strong telepathy, he has the ability to sense and communicate with nearly any intelligent -biological - mind within a 2 mile sphere. He is intimately connected to his rider, and able to let her see through his eyes a bit here and there, though she claims this is more him trying to show her 'something cool'... He can speak verbally, though mainly Draconic and English. His voice is as quiet as the wind, but he can howl like the wind too if needed.
Starlight and Silence, where many Leafwings can absorb sunlight to 'feed', it's possible that Silence can do the same under a moonlit night, or even bask in the distant, cold light of a billion stars below the New Vegas night sky. (Or for that matter, the New Vegas bright light strip!) He is a night-blooming dragon, usually not even awake during the daylight hours, though if he must he usually doesn't complain. The Silence part? That strong telepathy he has can extend to effectively 'blot out' sounds from living creatures minds - he could be screeching and howling right next to you and if he wishes, you will not hear it. Or at least, you won't acknowledge it: it's clear that he's able to damage hearing, even while not being heard at all. This silent passage is coupled with Aretha's Stealth Suit, and they are just unstoppable.
Parentage: Leafwing mother, Leaf-Nightwing hybrid father
Origin: Adopted from HufflepuffHannah on Deviantart, Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland
Other Info: Aretha is positive that the stars shown in his wings and scales are real ... somewhere. She might be right. Maybe some day she'll get one of those weird teleporters to send them to one of them!