Astoria Mendus
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| Astoria Mendus | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Homeworld | |
| Birth | ???? |
| Died | |
| Family | The Actuary (Adopted daughter) |
| Occupation(s) |
Healer, Thief, couch-surfer |
| Alias | |
| Physical description | |
| Species |
Expellian |
| Gender |
female |
| Hair color |
Black |
| Eye color |
Yellow |
| Height |
5'9 |
| Statistics | |
| Weapon(s) |
retractile claws |
| Abilities |
Advanced mana control / magical affinity |
| Affiliation | |
| First Appearance |
A Tale of Three Cities (August 2023) |
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"I got the skill, if ya got the gil."
Contents
Background
A native of the Grimdark Universe, Astoria was born on that universe's planet Expel. Life was hard, and though she had an insanely high level of magical ability, her skills were mainly used to keep herself alive, as her family lived in an area constantly under siege by horrific beasts. Her entire family (parents, siblings and grandparents) was killed and her family farm destroyed when she was very young, forcing her to fend for herself by becoming a thief. After she was caught stealing from the mob, she was forced into offering her healing services to the Twilight crime syndicate as a 'mob doctor'.
Her association with the Twilight Syndicate taught her to be a fierce and formidable fighter, killer, and skilled healer. It also honed her survival instinct in the process.
Life for her was a constantly adrenalin rush and knife-edged fight for survival. However, as these things always go, the crime family eventually decided to betray her, and she had to flee Expel, making her way to the HOTEL of that world, where she had to subsist on scraps, a far cry from the opulence provided by the Syndicate.
She led a mostly aimless and selfish life, just looking to fill her belly, until the day she found a crashed rocket pod in the middle of an Akihabara street, containing a young, helpless Noriko Marianna Xadium, fresh from the 400 Baby Project.
Suddenly confronted with a kindred spirit all alone in the world, she raised the baby to adulthood, loving her dearly but always but always feeling insecure since the young Noriko was always obsessed about finding her birth parents.
Eventually, after Noriko seemingly was killed after being "spirited away" by the Kaelyn P. Peinforte of that universe, and that Noriko's child Vermellia killed herself during an accident involving the creation of her Sniper-Scythe, Astoria fell into a deep depression and just resolved to spend the rest of her days rotting in the HOTEL.
This changed after a brief visit from The Intern, Haruka, Michiru, Cressida and Hotaru from Earth-1337, whose revelation that Noriko and Vermellia were still alive in their universe convinced her to give life a second try, and she secretly decided to tag along to their universe...
Personality
Astoria is a brash, clever, worldly young (relatively) woman who is kind-hearted, but always looking out for herself first, mainly out of instinct and habit. She is very mercenary with her skills, not offering to heal or fight unless there's something in it for her. Due to her harsh upbringing, she paradoxically seeks lavish surroundings and rich foods while still maintaining a very spartan lifestyle personally ("just in case everything goes wrong"). She has a very cynical, pessimistic worldview common to natives of her universe, and feels that the relative happiness and prosperity of Earth 1337-A is an illusion just waiting to be shattered, which no one should rely on.
While she prides herself on being fiercely independent, she does prize loyalty and will repay it in kind. There is nothing she will not do to protect the ones she cares about, so long as she thinks there's a chance they can be helped- which admittedly, due to her cynical, doomsaying nature, is not a lot of the time.
Skills
She is a very high-level healer, and extremely lethal fighter. She can move with extreme speed, has the strength of ten men, has excellent night vision and olfactory senses, and has an uncanny instinct for knowing when people are lying to her. Being an Feline-type Expellian she can move with extreme stealth and flexibility, and leverages these skills to be a master thief. She is good with basically any kind of melee weapon, and of course can deal incredible damage with her golden Vibranium-[Electrum]-coated claws.
She is an excellent haggler and master of disguise.
Trivia
- Astoria sounds like a stereotypical "country" girl, with a light Southern / Osakan accent depending on the listener.
- Astoria can be bribed with tasty food, and has an incurable sweet tooth.
- Astoria may or may not be prepping for the apocalypse in her HOTEL room, the number of which is never constant as she makes sure to move from week to week to avoid being traced.
- Astoria is a master of the "Pickpocket" technique that basically allows her to steal anything from anyone >98.5% of the time.
- She also possesses a "Ring of Lightspeed" that lets her do melee attacks at incredible speed.
