Botfly

Jocasta is a friendly cat; she enjoys casual conversation and does her best to be kind to those around her.

Jocasta, despite her young age, is highly knowledgeable about many different topics, and enjoys learning new things.

Jocasta is a realist, able to realize when things are bad but not getting hung up on them.

While distactable, Jocasta is fairly detail-orientated and picks up on the little things.

Jocasta is very sheltered, leading to her being very trusting. This can make her a reliable and trustworthy teammate, but can also lead to easy manipulation.

Jocasta is stubborn, sticking on the path of what she views as good she's on even if it's killing her.

Jocasta is very easily distractable, leading both to new discoveries but also straying from what she should be focusing on.

Jocasta is very blunt, unafraid of holding her punches. Some like her straightfowardness, while others find it disconcerting.

Jocasta, given her size and lack of strength, is rather unassuming, leaving others to underestimate her--though this often leaves room for surprises.

Jocasta has a chronic lying problem, in part due to time in the Ivory Crows. She doesn't mean to, but rather is more of a habit; not like she's any good at it.

Jocasta tends to be a bit fickle until you've earned her trust, chosing to save her own hide over those of others.

Jocasta tends to hoard things and is a bit of a kleptomaniac, though she will happily share if you ask nicely enough.

Jocasta is fairly apathetic; she knows when she feels bad, but she has seen most of the bad things life has to offer and has the mindset of 'fix it or get over it'.

Born in Zone 5's undercity, sickly, with her only littermate dying alongside her father not long after she was born. Lived with her mother, Aether, and sibling, Cicada until Aether died from the Stain. Cicada catches the Stain and Jocasta and them are forced to leave their shelter to find help. They encounter Javelin and the Ivory Crows, who promise to help Cicada as long as Jocasta could provide something to them. Not knowing any better, she agrees. Jocasta is exploited for her mechanical and medical knowledge, becoming known as Botfly for said knowledge and for joining to try and help Cicada. The Crows tell her her sibling is good to go, only for them to emerge looking worse than before. They try and tell her she has to give back the bracers because they are Ivory Crow property, but she argues that they didn't give her their end of the deal, so they reluctantly let them go. Jocasta catches wind of the Trials and decides to try and win to help Cicada, slipping away in the dead of night and leaving both enough resources for them to survive and her beloved welding goggles, a promise to them that she would be back.

This story has yet to be told.

Jocasta spent much of her youth reading and studying, namely the stars and mechanics, but has also picked up bits and pieces of many different languages.

Jocasta has a fantastic memory.

Jocasta, despite being quiet, is surprisingly comfortable in conversation, even if it isn't her forte.

Jocasta has a strong sense for right and wrong and is unafraid to call others out on it.

Jocasta has a weak heart. This has resulted in her low bloodpressure and poor natural hearing.

Jocasta is very gullible and has a hard time reading the intentions of others.

Jocasta has only ever heard about the outside world through storires and hearsay; she knows little about what else is out there.

Jocasta has very low stamina. This is in part her weak heart, and in part her stationary hobbies.

Jocasta la Verrier was born in the ashy undercity of Zone 5 alongside one littermate and one older sibling; however, neither newborn were in particualrly good shape. Both were born weak and a number of ailments, with the first-born, Nymph, not making it more than a weak before passing, her father soon to follow from a chest infection. But Jocasta, much to her mother's relief, pulled through, leaving a family of three.

Unfortunately, the young girl wouldn't get much stronger despite her survival. Her heart remained weak, her limbs weak, shaky and swollen from her low blood pressure that only got worse as she grew. Because of this, she wasn't able to participate in her older sibling, Cicada, and her mother's, Aether, scavenging escapades. This meant the young girl was often left home by herself in their makeshift house made of scrapped sheetmetal.

However, Jocasta never minded. Cicada and Aether would bring back storybooks and whatever other literature they could get their hands on for her to entertain herself with, and Jocasta couldn't be happier. She spent her time flipping through them, learning whatever she could and remembering it all. She spent so much time reading that Aether soon found her daughter speaking in the third person, and no matter how much she corrected her the habit never quite left. But that was okay. As long as they stuck together, they would be fine.

As Jocasta got older, she found herself more capable of reading various manuals and instructional books. This sparked her interest in mechanics and inventing and sudden requests for scrap metal, welding materials, circuit scraps, anything her sibling and mother could get their hands on. The hut aged with her, Jocasta able to add more structure and space, more storage and hiding places. It was during this time her family secured her some welding goggles as a 12-month-old birthday gift.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end.

It started as a small black spot on the base of Aether's paw, barely noticable even to her... but soon that spot became a patch. It didn't take Jocasta's mady waterlogged medical journels to know that this was the Stain. Where she got it from was unknown an irrelevant; illness spread like wildfire in the undercity, so it didn't take a genuis to know it was futile to wonder.

Immediately, Aether began to isolate, making a make-shift shelter nearby with Cicada bringing whatever resources she needed to make herself comfortable. Meanwhile, Jocasta, determined to save her mother, dove into her reading, reading about the stain and doing her best to try and find a cure in her books and creations, but naturally none was to be found. It was only a matter of time before Cicada came with the news that Aether had passed.

It was an even shorter period before Cicada began showing symptoms himself.

Still grieving and Jocasta unable to provide for her ill sibling, the pair left their shelter to find help. Unfortunately for them, the undercity was filled with residents looking to exploit and deceived, and the sheltered Jocasta was none the wiser as one gang, originally accusing them of stealing from them, noticed the spreading ink on Cicada's pelt.

A cat stepped forward. He smoothly introduced himself as Javelin, a higher-up of the gang known as the Ivory Crows, one of the bigger gangs in the undercity. Pointing out Cicada's obvious ailment, he offered them a deal. He claimed that they had a cure for the Stain and that they could help her sibling; it would just take time. In turn, she would become a member of their gang and help them with in some way. Not knowing any better, Jocasta believed them, and Cicada was too tired and sick to really understand what was going on. She agreed. Javelin, pleased, directed his cats to take Cicada to the 'Medical Ward' while Jocasta was guided away, told they needed time to work on her sibling, and that she would be able to see them again as soon as they felt she had provided enough for the Crows.

Naturally, no matter what she did, it would never be enough.

To say the environment was abusive would be an understatement. Physical strength and wits were valued, and while Jocasta held enough knowledge to get by, she was far from strong, often a target for the younger member's claws as a way to gain status. Indeed, the lowest on the pecking order, Jocasta's life was miserable, but she was doing it for her sibling.

She didn't feel life with the Ivory Crows was all bad, though. Indulging her heart problems with the more medically-knowledgable members, they were able to get her materials and equipment to increase the circulation to her limbs with some prothetics and biomachinery with the help of some black market connections.

Alongside this, Jocasta believed she was doing good. Javelin and the other Ivory Crow members told her that the other gangs were bad, that they killed sick and ailed cats like her and her sibling, and by helping them she was getting rid of that evil. Why would she believe otherwise? She had never seen these other gangs to know any different.

And so, unassuming and trusting, Jocasta did what she was told, falling in with those on the mechanical and medical side of things--the very cats who had helped her construct and finetune her bracers. She (granted, somewhat unconsentingly) took on a name more inline with the other Crows, becoming known as Botfly due to her mechanical knowledge and being known as the cat who joined to save her bug-named sibling, the actually Botfly insect more of an afterthot.

For months they operated like this, Jocasta reading and improving her own bracers and learning more about healing with the hopes of finding something to help her sibling. Little knicks and scars appeared on her pelt and Javelin and the other Crows became increasingly snappy with her, but she didn't mind as long as they were going to save her sibling. She earned a little rapport due to her mechanical knowledge, with a handful of incoming machinery passing through her before being added to their ever-growing stores.

As time went on, however, the more reputable members were taught what she knew and shown what she looked for in incoming mechanics. Her usefulness was wearing off, even if she didn't see it.

One day, they decided her time there was up, and they told her they were able to give her sibling back.

At the news, Jocasta couldn't help but be estatic. They were finally giving her beloved sibling back. She waited with baited breath until she saw them walking towards her. They were here... they were here... but inky black stained their pelt, looking so much worse than before. Their pelt was ragged, eyes vacant and distant. She held out a paw to them, but she already knew. Whatever they were able to offer had not worked.

However, they weren't going to let her go so easily. They demanded she give the bracers back; after all, she had not paid for them and were still technically propery of the Ivory Crows. But she was unable to do this, explaining they were attached to her and her circulatory system, but Javelin and the others refused to listen, until she said how they said they were going to heal her sibling and they hadn't. The bracers would be their payment.

Reluctantly, she was let go, and back to their shelter they went, Jocasta able to provide a little more thanks to her bracers but unable to navigate the undercity the way her mother and sibling could.

As days passed, though, the whispers of a cure travelled from overworld to under and Jocasta, knowing it may be the only way to save her withering sibling, decided to try despite her frail body. So, in the middle of the night, she slips away, making sure to leave enough food and water for Cicada to survive on while she was away. She left her beloved welding goggles behind as well, a promise to Cicada that she would return. As she climbed from the trash and treasure, she entered the world for the first time, the starry night sky before her and a story yet to be told.

Jocasta's bracers were her first valuable, crafted with the help of her colleagues in the Ivory Crows and some parts from the black market. They help increase circulation to her legs, as her heart is not strong enough to consistentantly get blood to her paws and back. Later, as she found she needed more efficiency, she crafted some mechanics into them, though they remain fairly basic and more specialized than she'll most likely need.

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