Post by Augustine on Feb 26, 2023 17:08:13 GMT
Nian Gao
Generalities
Name: Nian Gao
AKA: Patricia Feng, Qiao Xun
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Race: Construct
Faction: Gilgamesh
Squad: N/A
Role: Specialist
Battle Theme: アンソルヴドソーサリー - Unsolved Sorcery
Rank: D
Red Orbs: 1000
Blue Orbs: 0
Character Description
Physical Appearance(s): If one saw only her face, one could easily mistake Nian for a simply a tall woman, albeit with perhaps some odd eyes given their unusual golden color, but nothing that unusual. Long white-hair typically drawn into a pony-tail a fairly pretty face on a body some six feet and six inches tall, but directly below the chin the truth of her nature is already exposed, the white metal plate with a slight gap to either side showing the internal circuitry and wiring, and it doesn’t get any better from there. Everything below the jawline is clearly robotic in nature, a complicated and sophisticated design made primarily of a white metal with supplementary components done in something similar to brass and internal components of a black alloy.
The ‘feet’ of the body are styled almost like a form of sneakers, and a curious set of pipes emerges from the elbows of both arms, almost like jets. The torso is no different and despite how it looks with a shirt over it, her bust is…well it’s still hard metal just like the rest of her, it’s all one piece too, essentially a single long swell placed onto the torso holding a variety of circuitry and components. Nian herself still questions whether it was actually necessary to her design though, and still prefers covering it up whenever possible, usually with a Cheongsam, but of course in any situation where civilians might see she usually has to wear a lot more.
Fortunately with full body clothes and high collar coats or shirts she can pass as fully human.
Personality:
Nian is a woman who lives her life by a simple idea, ‘stay positive’ an admirable ideal, especially given everything she has to deal with. She tries to maintain a cheerful smile and always find the silver lining. She’s willing to try anything, although it’s easy to do that when you don’t really know what you like. Her interests seem to shift by the day, with one day having a passionate and strong opinion regarding how spiced food should be, and the next well…she’ll remember having that conversation but she might struggle to remember why she thought that way, food’s food right?
Still some of it’s easier, she’s never had a day where she didn’t like nian gao, the dessert for which she was named, but even that’s because both Patricia and Qiao had extremely strong preferences to the foodstuff, with deep ties to it. Nian doesn’t really know ‘why’ she likes it, she knows, roughly, why Patricia and Qiao did, just because it’s a consistent like doesn’t mean the reasons she likes it are consistent day to day, which gets into the big bugbear in the room.
Nian’s mind is a composite of a dozen or more human minds, all crushed together, with two people being the most prominent, their memories, thoughts and personalities having the most ‘sway’ on how Nian Gao behaves on her day to day. The reason her tastes are so mercurial and hard to pin down, why one day she can love horror movies, and the next day not be interested in movies at all is that shifting in her own head. Every person’s personality is the result of years of life and experiences, someone with a father for a chef will likely know and care far more about food than someone focused on martial arts who ate a strict diet focused around health and bodybuilding.
In her head these memories and experiences shift constantly, it’s not ‘vying for control’, Nian is always Nian, her general personality and attitude doesn’t change much, but she finds herself recalling fragments of things from other people. One day she’ll smell pickles and have a strong recollection of being a young child, being taught how pickling works by a grandparent, and then later she’ll struggle to recall anything about that flashback other than that it happened at all.
As a result, as most people know her, Nian has adopted the idea of just trying to be as non-opinionated as possible. She’s good to do anything, and in the event that she does wind up slipping up and visibly expressing some form of extreme passion over something only for the memories that triggered it to slide away later, she’ll do her damndest to act enthusiastic about the thing later. Though she usually only has to do this when someone does something nice based on that earlier outburst. She’d rather just grin and pretend then make things awkward or have to try and explain how her mind works.
If nothing else her moral code seems strongly set, at least as much as any person’s is. She’s never been observed suddenly having a shift in what she finds okay, she’s never suddenly switched to vegan views, or believing some new racist idea, and so on. While it’s speculated by her engineers why, the primary reason is likely her self-awareness. Nian is aware, she’s aware of her problems, of the fact that she’s made up of many people’s minds all sort of mashed together, that at any moment a thought might come to her that isn’t ‘hers’ but springs from a memory of someone else’s inside of her. So, she clings strongly to what she believes is ‘hers.’ One of those things is her ideals, her view of what is right and wrong, she’s even written it down.
Based on this it’s easy to see why Nian is willing to try just about anything, after all she doesn’t really know what ‘Nian’ likes. She’s ever exploring to find those things that she genuinely likes, that she can come back to again and again, and not just things she finds herself only enjoying while fragments of someone else dance through her head, only to realize after the visceral feeling of attachment and nostalgia is passed, that she’s not really sure she cares much about the thing at all.
It’s gone reasonably well, she has a list of things she enjoys and why she likes them. Nian gao is at the top of the list…although she doesn’t have a reason for that one just yet. Fighting is another, with a long spiel about the thrills of combat, and importantly how when she’s fighting her mind can focus, and all the distracting competing thoughts of different people slowly fade out, and it’s just…her.
Backstory
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Patricia Feng. Born to a Chinese immigrant and a US citizen, she lived a comfortable life. It wasn’t spectacular, but her family got by, providing enough for her and her siblings. They could even visit their grandparents in China, where her grandmother spoiled them with treats like nian gao, and even taught Patricia how to make it. Life was alright with the worst hardship being the intense expectations set upon her by her parents. Patricia was a clever girl after all, but even if she wasn’t it might not have changed much. She could do great things if she applied herself, and so apply herself she did, working hard at school to go to a fancy college and become an engineer. Patricia liked to build things after all.
Once upon a time there was a girl named Qiao Xun. Her mother died giving birth to her, leaving her with just her father and an older sister. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she always imagined their father was resentful that neither of them was a son instead. He never did seem to help much with raising her, or around the house, and she grew up watching her sister do all the housework, and all the care with raising Qiao. Her sister spending what little money they had on nian gao, just to put a smile on little Qiao’s face. As she grew older, she turned into a bit of a delinquent, getting into fights, even shirking classes for it. When she got older she managed to immigrate to America and get a work visa, all the while practicing martial arts, shooting for a chance to join the UFC, practicing her MMA.
Patricia was the top of her class, and on track for a PHD. She didn’t have much of a social life, but her family was proud of her. One day she was on a trip to visit a power plant, a potential step to getting to do some part-time work there between classes. It was a freak accident, and she could never bring herself to read the reports on what happened. Would knowing why actually change anything? An explosion ripped through the facility, and Patricia barely survived. She lost everything but her left arm. With a bit of physical therapy she could move that well, enough to pilot an electric wheelchair at least. Her family tried to console her, even though limited, maybe she could still pursue her career?
Things were looking up for Qiao Xu, competing in multiple small events and local scenes; she'd finally started to get some serious attention. She had an interview with UFC, she had a chance at joining the big leagues and getting the opportunity to make a name for herself as a real contender in the fighting world. After celebrating with her friends, on the taxi-ride home, tragedy struck, the cab T-boned in a horrific car crash. Qiao survived, but she was paralyzed from the neck down, with only a limited amount of motion in her right hand. There was nothing to do but be sent home to China, where her sister’s family was willing to take care of her. At least she could communicate, it could’ve been worse, right?
From that day Patricia’s mind couldn’t help but obsess over a specific field of science, that of prosthetics, cybernetics, anything and everything related to repairing a body as mangled as hers, to replacing limbs lost to tragedy. She grew more socially withdrawn but began to gain a reputation as a brilliant mind and a leader in her field. Yet it wasn’t enough, for all the work done, nothing she could figure out could help her.
All Qiao had to occupy herself with beyond TV was the internet, with nothing but time on her hands she learned to use the limited motor function in her right hand to browse and type. Despite how it hurt she gravitated towards fighting, taking to commentating and reviewing, steadily growing a following and a notoriety in various forums and online spaces for her somewhat polarizing views of martial arts and fighting. It passed the time at least, but didn’t stop the bitterness from growing.
One night, a thick mist filled Patricia’s home, and a strange man all in black appeared before her bed.
One night, a thick mist poured through the windows of Qiao’s bedroom and through her sister’s house, as a strange man all in black stepped into her room.
With a tip of his hat the man introduced himself.
“Doctor Feng. I’ve long admired your work and tireless effort.”
“Miss Xu, a pleasure to meet one with such a tireless spirit.”
He extended a hand, a snowy white emerging from a black sleeve.
“I can give you the knowledge you seek. The means to build a replacement for this body that has failed you.”
“I can free you from this failed vessel, leave you free to pursue the potential that has been caged inside of you.”
She hesitated, was this even real? It seemed like a dream, her nurse/her sister should have noticed something odd was going on. Were they asleep?
If it was a dream, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take this stranger’s hand? Yet…what would be the cost of such a thing?
“I ask not compensation in money, I only ask that once you can stand again, you do a little work for me. Surely that’s a small price to pay for what I offer?
She took his hand.
Patricia woke up in a strange place, she couldn’t move her arm, no she couldn’t feel her body at all. She didn’t recognize the room she was in, it was like a workshop! She called out in a panic as she tried to flex or move anything. People emerged in lab coats with tablets. Qiao shouted at them, what was going on? Where was she? They poked at her face and head, and asked bizarre questions. Who the hell was Patricia Feng? She was Qiao Xun! Eventually they left.
The next day they returned, and Patricia had realized something horrifying. There wasn’t anything below her neck at all, she was…a head! A head suspended on cables and wires! They asked her questions, but who the hell was Qiao Xun? Zhou Xun? What did her sister have to…no, no she didn’t have a sister named Zhou Xun, that wasn’t right…
It took over a week for the engineers and scientists in charge of studying this curious find to properly explain the circumstances around her. A Gilgamesh raid on a facility, an illegal hidden hospital doing profane experiments on the desperate people and criminals that visited it. Upon arriving they’d found it’s depths guarded by a strange construct, a curious blend of modern technology and demonic magic. Her.
The operatives sent had severed head from body, which had ended the fight, but while studying her remains, the engineers realized that she wasn’t dead, that her power source, located in the head, was still intact and could thus be resuscitated so to speak. Said power source was…a brain, or at least something that looked like one, but crystalizing heavily, with strange spikes of an unknown, white-blue crystal driven in at several points. They’d taken a very small sample for DNA testing and it had been identified as Patricia Feng. They’d put together a number of pieces from that alone, only to revive her and have her claim to be Qiao Xun instead, upon investigating they’d manage to find such a person, or the records of them, and then she’d started talking like she was Dr. Feng.
As more time passed and more questions and tests were done it became more clear. This construct they’d salvaged, her mind and her energy source both, were an amalgamation of both Patricia and Qiao. Yet it didn’t fully explain a number of things. While from day to day which name she’d respond to, or recognize as ‘her’ name was always one of those two, she’d frequently manifest memories belonging to neither. Some of these memories gave details of things neither could have possibly lived through.
Once this phase passed, and the construct was properly aware of her circumstances the team moved on. They presented to her a number of documents, blueprints, notes encoded in different languages in different ciphers. Some of it seemed familiar to her, but all the fabled knowledge of Dr. Feng seemed to have been drained out of her, bar occasional flashes of ideas, but none of the knowledge she retained could help with these esoteric designs. Extremely intricate and complex, the circuitry that ran through the body seemed to follow not routes or paths of efficiency, but of a ritualistic nature. For what purposes were not the easiest to decipher.
Through it all, the construct was but a head in a lab, most of her requests denied, save for one. A request for nian gao. For whatever reason she still had all her senses including taste, but of course actually processing food was out of the question. A few of the scientists took pity on her, and would bring her little treats. It wasn’t often, cleaning it up wasn’t fun after all, and eventually they’d take to calling her Nian Gao, after the thing she asked for the most. It eventually spread to all involved as the construct showed she could recognize that as a name, whereas with Patricia and Qiao there was still regular confusion if one or the other shifted, forgetting that one or the other was referring to her.
It became clear that she wasn’t an immediate threat, and as studies progressed her body was hooked up to a very simplified, harmless ‘skeleton’ for her to move around in. Very limited, no independent power source, but it was something. Nian tried to help, and flashes of Patricia let her use the knowledge of that doctor, but anything that Patricia had learned after disappearing, Nian didn’t have a clue.
Through it all there was a clear, hanging question not just for the team, but from those above them, from the mysterious heads of Gilgamesh itself. Which was how to regard Nian Gao, what to do with her. Was she a criminal who had colluded with devils? Was she a victim? Was she even a person as she was? Not easy questions to grapple with in so odd a case. At least one member of the team viewed her as the result of tampering with corpses and advocated based on that belief. Others took a more sympathetic view, and eventually permission was gained to run an extensive series of tests. Tests for morality, for hidden rules or mental switches that might compel her to do certain things in certain environments.
One of the keys was installing a hidden kill switch into a more capable body, one independent. She was not told of this, and deliberately placed into situations where through ‘negligence’ she could have attempted to escape. While doubts still existed, she wasn’t just a novel find, full of useful information, but potentially a useful agent as well. Those few of the team opposed to her transferred to other projects, and those that stayed got permission to return Nian Gao to the body she’d originally been found in, and to instate her as an operative. Of course modifications were made, a kill switch incorporated in the event they’d missed something or she went rogue. The team didn’t like it but…if they never had to use it, did it matter if it was there?
As it happened, Nian Gao turned out to be quite a capable operative, and has been nothing but loyal and cooperative so far. She’s not allowed out in ‘public’ often and never alone of course but she’s adopted an extremely positive attitude all things considered. There are still countless mysteries to her body, inactive systems and devices that can’t be powered or activated without the team knowing what they do, but she’s confident they’ll unravel them eventually. All she can do is stride forward, and try to discover ‘herself.’
Traits
Brain Food(Energy Source)
Nian’s power source and weakness is quite simply her head, specifically the brain contained within it. Said brain is partially crystallized, with only small bits of ‘flesh’ actually accessible. Set into it at various points are spikes of a white-blue crystal and these are the real power source. A demonic material called Ignis Fatuus. Decapitating her will disable her from fighting entirely but not outright kill her, and killing her is as simple as caving in her metal skull.
However, there are two specific weaknesses to this that go beyond simply 'aim for the head.' Arguably the less lethal of the two, sounds of sufficient volume and pitch can 'resonate' with the crystalline structures in her brain and create feedback that can have a number of debilitating effects. Typically this is in the form of briefly losing control of a limb or limbs, or in her senses completely screwing up, seeing double, sounds being delayed, perceiving sounds as coming from a different direction, phantom touches and more. In severe cases it can even cause her to temporarily shut down and force a reboot. More pressingly though, she is more vulnerable to blows to the head than a normal human. Take as an example, a strong left straight. A normal human might be staggered, dazed, they might get their nose broken or even get some teeth loosened, but they can probably jump back into the fight without too much issue, especially if they're an experienced combatant. For Nian though this could have dangerous consequences. Hard impacts to the head run the risk of fracturing the crystal components in her brain, reducing power flow to her body in a best-case scenario, losing her ability to power attachments, to forcing a full shut down as she loses all power in a worst case scenario. Any attack to the head must be reacted to with utmost care, as even a glancing blow runs the risk of ending the fight.
Perpetual Motion(Inhuman Stamina)
Being a construct powered by strange devil crystals, it is perhaps no surprise that Nian Gao does not tire easily, she can keep going long past the point a human would be exhausted, although there is a limit. While her power source naturally charges itself over time and can be charged further through the right methods, adequate physical activity will drain it faster than it can replenish and lead to a form of exhaustion.
Equipment
Name: Hands of the Sentinel
Description: Nian’s very body is designed to be a weapon and this is exemplified perfectly via her arms, or the ‘Hands of the Sentinel’ as they are named in the schematics. Made of a triplet of metals all of which have devilish origins they are hard, durable and heavy, of note are the jets emerging from the elbows and in them exists the bulk of her offensive power at present. While her engineers have noted other potential systems in her arms, none have been activated as of yet.
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
Attachment: Jets of the Comet (Aspect-like)
Emerging from the elbows of the Hands of the Sentinel, the long black tubes, ringed with a brass-like metal are potently enchanted. Quite simply, they can produce jets of a powerful, white-hot flame at the base of the jet, erupting from the exits to produce both heat and force. This can be used to propel Nian forwards at high speeds across short distances, greatly enhance the speed or force of her attacks, and the jets themselves even are extremely hot and capable of burning, searing and even setting a foe on fire! The power of the jets varies, and in simple terms Nian can ‘charge’ them to produce more powerful and forceful thrust. The range of the jets is short though, it’s not like she can point her elbow at an enemy and have a great wave of flame wash over them, the jets only extend a few feet out when charged to the maximum.
Name: Legs of the Sentinel
Description: A matching pair to go with the Hands of the Sentinel, the legs are of a very similar design, ending in what almost look like sneakers. While very durable and of course fully functional as legs, no ‘attachments’ are active upon them, Nian’s team not yet having managed to fully decipher what any of them do or how to activate them. Still a good pair of metal legs is pretty damn good for kicking!
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
Combat Foci
Name: Modularity
Description: From neck all the way down, Nian’s body was clearly designed for one purpose, to have parts swapped in and out. Modularity was a clear goal, even if her team only has one pair of arms and legs for her to wear. Her modularity at present doesn’t really do much, but Nian’s confident she’ll be able to fully take advantage of this in the future.
Rank: D
Aspects: None
Name: I Know Kung-Fu
Description: Nian is an extremely skilled combatant, incorporating a variety of techniques and styles from myriad martial arts. While the bulk of her combat ability is drawn from Qiao Xun, there are a number of notable discrepancies that indicate the influence of other memories. Qiao Xun never studied much about weapon based fighting, but Nian seems just as skilled with a weapon as with her bare hands.
Rank: D
Aspects: None
Techniques
Name: Star Chaser
Description: Pulling back an arm, Nian Gao charges her jet, before loosing it, dashing forwards at speed to cross the gap and deliver a powerful blow to a foe! Star Chaser can be charged, building up the speed, force and distance traveled, up to three times more.
Focus: Arms of the Sentinel
Aspects: Jets of the Comet
Name: Comet Thruster
Description: A general combat technique for the application of the Jets of the Comet. Comet Thruster is simply the act of utilizing the jets for any general attack with the Hands of the Sentinel, allowing her to briefly delay the attack to charge the jets. This can be charged up further for increased power and force, up to three times the power of a default Comet Thruster.
Focus: Arms of the Sentinel
Aspects: Jets of the Comet
Name: Rising Meteor
Description: Activating the Jets of the Comet Nian Gao delivers a fearsome, brutal uppercut to launch a foe into the air! This can be charged, for up to three times the power, if charged even slightly the force of the uppercut can actually carry Nian Gao up into the air as well!
Focus: Arms of the Sentinel
Aspects: Jets of the Comet