Septicemia

content warnings: general horror, body horror, death

Personality

 energetic  🎲  loud  🎲  obtuse  🎲  capricious  🎲  panicky

     Septicemia's personality is somewhat inconsistent since the remnants of the many souls that once inhabited her body have left behind personality fragments that often surface without warning. In general, however, Septicemia is lively, energetic, somewhat capricious, and eager to please. She likes to have fun and help out, especially if she can do both at once! However, thanks to her energy level and her aforementioned soul situation, she can sometimes have trouble slowing down and truly understanding things, leading to a lack of awareness of the immediate social atmosphere and difficulty in grasping new concepts.

     Thanks to guilt rooted in several events in her past, she's prone to panicking and breaking down when she feels like she's harmed someone (who isn't an enemy), which causes her to withdraw and become non-verbal. It's difficult to get her out of this state, and she usually requires a lot of time to herself to recover. She stims by movement and is rarely ever still: she swings her arms, swings her legs, rocks back and forth (which is the most calming to her), and likes to keep her hands occupied with anything possible.

Backstory

 "It's okay! I'm okay! I'm okay! I'm okay! I'm okay!"

     Septicemia was born alongside two other girls - Viremia and Azotemia - to serve as a Vessel: a being used to channel multitudes of other beings at once for the purpose of communication. She spent the entirety of her childhood being prepared for this purpose, being put through thousands of tests to ensure that her body would be able to handle the quantity and sheer vibe of souls her caretakers intended to summon through her. She passed them all with flying colors, and out of the three girls she was deemed to have the most potential. Having been raised as a Vessel, Septicemia saw little to object and was even excited by the approval and praise she received.

     Her first channels went without issue, though they did cause her quite a bit of stress. Losing control of herself and being swallowed up by a chorus of bloodthirsty voices that spilled forth from her very being - even if she had been an adult at the time it would have been frightening for her. Her caretakers assured her nothing bad would happen to her, however, and that she was doing just fine. Wonderful, in fact! Better than Viremia, who had summoned souls stick to her and pry away with the completeness of syrup. Better than Azotemia, who was inconsolable before and after summonings. Better than Ischemia, who-

     That was when Septicemia's vague doubts began to swell and take solid form. There had been another girl before them named Ischemia, a girl that the new generation wasn't meant to see. Countless summonings of uncontrollably powerful beings left her a shambling corpse of who she had been, splattered with shadowy markings and body parts that changed as rapidly as her demeanor. If there was an Ischemia at all, she was buried beneath a number of screaming entities that grew like a cancer. Her utterly corrupted state - something united only by the amalgamate's desire for freedom and vicious revenge against whoever allowed it to be - shocked the girls and consumed any sense of safety they ever had. Their caretakers ushered them away, assuring them that no such thing would ever happen to them and that Ischemia would be taken care of. This generation of theirs was more advanced, they were simply better, and their guardians knew more than they did before.

     But if that was true, why was there a blackness that grew on Viremia's skin? Why did Azotemia catch a fleeting glimpse of one pupil too many when she looked in the mirror? Why, in the middle of the night, did Septicemia hear an unfamiliar whisper echoing off the back of her skull?

     Fearful for their well-being, the three girls conspired to run away before they too wound up like Ischemia. Unfortunately, their plan backfired disastrously. Azotemia presumably escaped - Septicemia never saw her again - but Viremia and Septicemia were quickly recaptured. It wasn't long before Viremia degraded like Ischemia, and soon after - now having to shoulder the burden of summonings meant to be spread across three girls on her own - Septicemia found herself beginning to fall apart as well. Her body began to distort, and the knowledge of what fate awaited her was fed to the souls that passed in and out of her body.

     No more, they agreed. This visit, this unwilling tour of a world with a lower species who attempted to play God with forces they couldn't hope to understand, would be their last. What Septicemia felt was mostly irrelevant, but they could all feel the desire for freedom that gnawed at them, gnawed at her.

     On the planned date all manner of beings flooded into Septicemia, wresting control from both her and her caretakers. They evolved in form from a tangled mess of limbs to a coordinated effort to destroy, laying waste to the institution that held Septicemia captive. But even though her voice was drowned out by the dozens, hundreds who suddenly called out at once in confusion and anger, Septicemia's flesh clung to them and kept them from leaving. She was completely overwhelmed, and the shell of her was so overloaded that it shut down, letting nothing in nor out. Now the girl named "Septicemia" was little more than a husk used to hold a mass of stranded bodies, none of whom who had intended to do anything more than eliminate a periodic annoyance and leave. Septicemia herself was huddled in a dark corner, staring blankly through a pinhole at an unfamiliar world, cold and apathetic and already too used to her life not being her own.

     For the next several years "Septicemia" struggled to wander the planet. The souls within her seldom shared a single goal, and just moving her limbs was a struggle. Some of the entities wanted to continue wreaking havoc, some wanted to find a way to be freed, some were completely apathetic, some liked their new home, and some were concerned with the well-being of their host and sought to console her. Despite her internal conflict, "Septicemia" managed to stay in the shadows, becoming something of an urban legend.

     Then came the day that All-Conquering Hadris Torant arrived, taking over the planet "Septicemia" resided on. Hadris himself eventually happened upon her, intrigued and concerned all at once. He promised the beings within her that he could free them, and promised Septicemia that he could give her back control of her body. He took her back to his realm, where he and his associates were gradually able to exorcise the foreign souls from Septicemia's body. There were a few little fragments of them still stuck to Septicemia's, but it was something that couldn't be helped; they had spent so much time attached to Septicemia's soul that pieces of them stayed fused to it. Still, all in all Hadris' efforts were successful and Septicemia was now free to live her life again.

     Septicemia chose to stay in Hadris' realm, where she received both physical and mental therapy to help her cope with her experiences. Things were going well, and with time she managed to become one of Hadris' Representatives: one of his closest friends and most trusted allies. And then Hadris' imprisoned arch-enemy, Memen, managed to briefly channel herself through Septicemia during a breach, killing several of Septicemia's allies and friends with her body. Though she was swiftly exorcised and Memen was safely sealed away once more, the event shook her and caused Septicemia to curl up and recede upon herself.

     After 100 years Septicemia had mostly recovered again, and with new friends who could relate to her situation to some extent her stability improved. But with word that an old Representative thought dead by Memen's hand has reappeared, seeking to free her... Septicemia fears that her life is about to spiral out of her control once more.

RP History

     After meeting with a man named Ignis Phasmatis, Hadris sent Septicemia and Flann to the headquarters of Capital Defense to get rid of one of Ignis' many roadblocks in his quest for freedom. At first they treated it like any other mission: Flann transformed, Septicemia started buffing her allies and debuffing their foes... but it became apparent that Ignis' wards were particularly brutal and that the whole situation was a bit shifty.

     The battle didn't last long before it was destroyed in a series of explosions. Septicemia and Flann survived the building's collapse and were promptly reuinited with Hadris and his associate, Laejizhar. While Hadris and Laejizhar looked for survivors, Septicemia stayed at Flann's side and contacted Hadris' top healer: Herelia. Soon after Herelia's arrival the group discovered that one of Ignis' underlings who had come with them - Senna - was still alive. If you want to call the sorry state she's in "alive," that is.

Powers/Abilities

 AVERAGE: 6.6/10

     Septicemia is a Vessel: an entity of any species used to channel the souls of other beings. These foreign souls rest in the body of the Vessel, where they can possess it. This process is often used to speak with beings from other worlds or to request their help, as they can offer both their expertise and powers while in the Vessel's body. Vessels are easily possessed and very susceptible to magical energy, especially things like emotion and mind control. This is by design, as ideally one could summon a powerful being through a Vessel and then use magic to control it for whatever purpose.

     Septicemia's extended exposure to the souls of demons, gods, and other powerful entities has corrupted her physical form considerably. She's become entirely inhuman, with the blood drained completely from her skin and much of her skin replaced with a solid black substance. Her body has been consumed from the inside, leaving her little more than a cold, empty, but animated shell. Her arms stretch beyond where they should, turning into shadowy claws that she can use offensively. She doesn't feel pain, which allows her to persevere in a fight but also makes her unable to realize when parts of her body won't work or won't work as powerfully as before. Her instincts are also somewhat dulled, thanks to spending years having little to no control over her body. Also as a result, she often spaces out or seems to shift into a different personality entirely.

     The soul remnants within her give Septicemia incredible magical potential, though she needs magical items to actually channel said potential through. She most commonly uses magical dice in battles, which allow her to buff her allies, debuff her enemies, and inflict status effects upon others.

Writing Featured In

SYOL || November 2013
🎲  In which Septicemia makes a brief appearing at a meeting. It feels like she's totally Flanderized... like a caricature of her current self! Wild!

Support Your Local Mafia || September 16th, 2013
🎲  Hadris hosts a game of Mafia with the Representatives. Septicemia gets eliminated first thanks to her unpredictable personality... though her character has toned down quite a bit since!