Aspasia Robertson W.I.P.

[TennyoCeres84]

This bio's essentially finished, but I wanted you to take a look at it, Leam. We've talked some about the Chimeras' history and Aspasia's relationship with Coach, but I still had to fill some things out that made sense to me. Let me know if something doesn't work or seem right with her bio. I'll adjust it as needed.

Name: Aspasia Robertson

Age: 56 years old

Gender: Female

Species: Blue Chimera (faun)

Strengths: While not as strong as Neasa, the fauness still has an impressive range of the amount of weight she can lift. During her training and the Battle of Hope, she was able to push around smaller storage containers in short bursts, using them as cover or occasionally as a means of disruption. The source of these short bursts of strength was the nanotech implanted in her. Over the course of decades and the lack of battle stimulation, the intensity of these bursts has decreased somewhat. However, she still has a rigorous training regimen and is still a formidable force to be reckoned with.

The more notable ability is her stealth. She’s able to follow a target in a very quiet fashion, making her an exceptional scout or a sniper. Her instinctive and nanotech-enhanced knack for analysis made her an excellent field commander, and it’s something that led her to be the Blue Chimeras’ spokesperson, even today. Additionally, her reaction time is certainly fast enough to give non-Chimera soldiers pause, and she’s a natural at FPS games.
Additionally, her caring nature lends well to being a skilled field medic, as many other fauns are. She can tend wounds enough to stabilize the potential patient until more direct care can be given.

Lastly are Aspasia’s dormant Wyldfae powers. Potentially, she could use music to enthrall or tap into some arcane-based healing ability. However, this has only happened once in the entirety of her life. She hasn’t been able to reproduce the method in which she accessed it. Only time will tell if she is able to fully regain these powers.
As far as mundane abilities go, she is an accomplished violinist and a harmonica player. She is also a fluent speaker of Japanese and English, along with varying levels fluency in other languages.

Weaknesses: As tough and covert as she can be, Aspasia is still vulnerable to being harmed or killed. Land enough blows or shots, and she can be taken out.
An occasionally troubling weakness to her is the infrequent nature of tapping into her Wyldfae gifts. She senses that they’re there, but they are beyond her reach currently. The satyress had previously travelled to Eien-no-Yuki and now Evergloam to consult the local gruffs, but the goal hasn’t been attained.
Also, her absence from Paradise may have left her negotiating skills a little rusty, and she might not be able to relate to the Chimeras who returned there as well as she might have, back in the day.

Appearance: While nowhere near as large as gruffs are, fauns generally run tall, and Aspasia is no exception. She stands at an even 6 feet and weighs 160 pounds. Her physique is composed of lean, compact, and functional muscles, rather than anything you’d see in a women’s bodybuilding competition. Given Rendell’s wishes for physical perfection, she sports an hourglass figure and a well-endowed bust.

While being descended from prehistoric fauns, she doesn’t bear the ruddy tufts on her ears. Her features still harken back somewhat to the Summer Court’s perceptions of nobility. Snow-white tresses reach her hips, being styled in a fishtail braid. Warm, honey-colored eyes are lined with mild crow’s feet. Paradise’s sunless skies left her with rather pale skin that hasn’t darkened much since living on Earth. The bridge of her nose is flattened in a caprine fashion, with the tip appearing a rosy pink. The curve of high cheekbones arches into the structure of her goat-like ears. On top of her head, a pair of charcoal gray horns arc gracefully upwards and then partly curve down and up a few inches in a wave-like shape.

Her body overall resembles the fauns of Roman mythology, being essentially hairless on her face, neck, arms and torso. From the hips down, Aspasia has a short but thick coat of fur covering her digitigrade legs and charcoal gray cloven hooves. A short goat’s tail sticks out right above her rear end. A series of faded scars cover her body, those being the result of fights with angry Chimeras, Drifters, Fae, and humans from previous years. Due to the artificial umbilical cord in her gestation tank, the satyress has an innie navel as much as any person does.

During her day-to-day work at The Last Round-up Bar & Grill, she generally wears pants that have been cut-off or otherwise suited for her leg configuration. Shirts tend to vary, and she typically goes with something fairly simple as far as color or pattern. Most of the time, she goes without shoes, but she does have a durable set of boots commissioned to fit her hooves, in case of especially inclement weather.

Behavior: During the early days of Elysium, Aspasia’s personality wasn’t what it is today, for the most part. Her heavily programmed personality centered on adoration and obedience to the one known as “Father”, Gregory Rendell. Twisted racial memories and a false sense of superiority led Aspasia to follow him wholeheartedly. However, there was always a niggling sense of doubt in the back of her consciousness, which was quelled by headaches and reinforced surges of anxiety over the thought of displeasing Rendell.

It took a few decades to find her identity. The vague feelings of guilt after the Sector 7 Massacre and eventual landing in Hope began eating at the lies her life had been structured around. Her empathy toward those she would have previously killed or at least ran off were refocused into her commanding her troops to act as an occupation force rather than one intended to mete out genocide and dominance. Since she couldn’t simply desert the aimless bunch of Blues, she could at least control their actions to a certain extent. Bits of Earth culture also helped to ram at the framework which forced her to obey. Music tugged at her mind and her heart, the vestiges of her ancestors’ abilities.

Nowadays, the leftover pain of Elysium and the war days only come up occasionally and can be resolved with a trip to her therapist or a cup of tea with her husband, Coach. Her mind focuses on the preparation of food or composing a new musical piece for her to enjoy in her free time with the lich. While resentment toward Chimeras has died down, Aspasia prefers to stay out of the limelight, if at all possible. The need to atone and protect the city and its residents in times of peril is something that brings out the warrior in her. Finding camaraderie and love with Silas Robertson also improved her outlook. Volunteer work at the local hospitals is another way she pays back her debt and maintains her abilities as a medic.

As for her lost Wyldfae powers, having them resurface is something she would love to have happen, but it’s not a top priority nowadays. While her brethren have sought to return to their arcane roots through the various offshoots of Neopaganism and polytheism, the fauness found herself more at home with an animistic-based Buddhism, since Shintoism was so intrinsically tied to Japan. Meditation is usually suited for keeping her mind composed and grounded with her current circumstances in life.
As she maintains ties with the local Chimera community, she’ll visit with those who are still on friendly terms with her or keep an eye on the less social ones. Her status as their former commander causes her to still feel a certain amount of responsibility for them, sometimes playing the bartender therapist for the likes of Caliban, Spearhead, and any other Chimeras that walk into the restaurant.

Goals: Ever since the Battle of Hope and her desertion from Rendell, Aspasia’s main goal was to find who she was or could be. She devoted her mind to music and succeeded at learning two instruments. Her journey of self-discovery took her around the globe and brought her back to Hope, sensing this was a place she was needed. While Rendell remains something of a threat, MacHae’s aggression toward the local nexus and superheroes has stirred the fires of battle within her, only directing it toward defense of the city.

History: It could be said that Aspasia’s story started with the theft of the canisters containing the fertilized, modified and frozen eggs of ancient fauns and saurians, as well as their eventual purchase by Hyperion Biologics and being placed under the care of Rupert Issacs. Work on growing the potential life inside took a couple years.

However, as soon as the embryo developed rudimentary eyes and ears, Issacs hit the young life’s mind with a barrage of auditory and visual trauma, similar to the destruction faced by the Blues’ ancestors millions of years ago. This created a sense of fear and panic, which he would only allow the children to have temporary reprieves from or else risk breaking their minds altogether. At a later point, he would inject them with nanotech, imbuing them with the neuroplasticity, fighting skills, manners, personality traits, and education Rendell had ordered.

In January 1969, the Blue and Red Chimeras were completed and released from their tanks. Aspasia woke from her stasis in a panic, naked and horrified from the remnants of a blazing sky lit up by a meteorite bearing down on her pastoral village. A pair of large and grayish-green scaled arms steadied her in an embrace, immediately making her feel safe. Her programming told her this was their savior, their “Father”. Her mental torture had paid off for the mad scientist and the megalomaniac.
During the next four months of her life, the newborn Chimera exceled in the training simulations. She outpaced her fellow clones in shooting, close combat, stealth, medical response, and teamwork skills, becoming respected among her peers. Given how expensive the creation of the initial embryos had been, non-lethal weaponry was used during these fake battles. Nonetheless, Aspasia rose to become the head commander for the Blues. Their programming had also encouraged physical intimacy with her brethren as a means of bonding, in the future when they would repopulate the Earth. Both female and male Chimeras were injected with contraceptive drugs to prevent any unnecessary pregnancies.

Riding on the pro-Chimera fervor fed to them by Rendell, the Section 7 Massacre cleared the area for the Transgenics to gain territory. They either scared the Drifters off or mercilessly killed them. During the nights after the slaughter, the commander remembered waking up with tears rolling down her cheeks; with the vague feeling she and her kin had done something horribly wrong. Issacs’ programming brushed these conflicting emotions aside with a migraine and impending disapproval from her beloved Father. With the first Elysium HQ up, Aspasia watched as the first of the manifestos were beamed to Earth.

Unaware of Eiko Kazamatsuri’s machinations against Rendell, the routine of training, mating, eating, and sleeping fell into an essentially comfortable routine. It was only until September 1969 when the collective homeostasis was shattered with Caliban’s birth and escape from Sector 7 that really shook things up. It was unsettling to see this clone of their Father bolt through their defenses as though they were flies and leave Rendell injured. She was angry with the Japanese scientist, but she oddly couldn’t bring herself to hurt Eiko. Whatever whiffs she caught of Caliban’s scent made her uneasy, given how much calmer his had been even while rampaging through the warehouse. In comparison, Gregory’s betrayed his off-kilter behavior.

In the summer of 1970, Earth sent back its own broadcasts meant for Chimeras wanting to dissent. Amongst those transmissions were popular songs and recitations of poetry and literature, the senders hoping to appeal to the inner bookworm that the fauns had been known for. Aspasia would find herself listening intently, albeit hiding it behind stern commands and dismissive behavior. She especially had to hide it from her Red counterpart, Spearhead, who didn’t seem to be questioning at the time.
With broadcasts being swapped between Earth and Sector 7, life in the Chimera colony continued on as usual. The Reds and Blues were ramping up for their first mission to Earth in 1974. They landed in Hope’s spaceport and the first of many battles began in the Transgenic Wars.

What followed became the ultimate deciding factor in Aspasia’s desertion. Seeing the utter devastation left on some the world’s Nexuses was particularly devastating for the fauness. Why? Was it because of her Wyldfae ancestry? She saw some of her closest brethren, her bedmates and comrades, commit suicide in front of her, too sorrowful and guilt-ridden to continue on. The commander tried to stop them, but they pulled the triggers too quickly, leaving only the spray of blood on her face and chest. As a result, she felt herself go numb during these ordeals, refocusing her men to corral their opponents enough to complete their missions.

Thoroughly disturbed, she shoved her emotions down and eventually reported her losses to Rendell. While he was angry at the losses, she could deeply sense it was on the basis of the defeat of his resources, not the demises of his “children”. With regard to the suicides, the T-rex said their actions sorted the wheat from the chaff, removed the weak ones from the strong.

During these moments, it took all her control to keep her emotions in check. She masterfully feigned her loyalty and compliance. When she had enough time to herself, she sent a secret message to Eiko, affirming her desire to leave and save as many of her kind as possible. Caliban’s creator told her to find any other dissidents, get their names back to her, and use the least amount of force in the coming battles.

Unfortunately, to ensure the madman wouldn’t find out about her treachery, they still had to go along with his idea to seize Hope’s nexus. From July to early October 1975, the commander made sure to have the ones who had expressed absolute terror in the face of Gregory’s actions stay close to her, while she would send others off to battle to either be captured or killed, feeling a sting of guilt after betraying them. Still, she knew she was better off looking after the ones who felt truly betrayed by Issacs’ creation.

Ironically, Amazo’s trick to create a fake tree and nexus worked in their favor. She led the charge with the dissenters, getting as far away from Rendell as possible. The superheroes and U.S. Army’s attack on the Chimeras whittled down the ones who were the most loyal or complacent. Aspasia and her colleagues ended up running straight into Coach, who happened to be fighting alongside the supes, albeit on a much less known scale. The satyress’s first instinct was to order her officers to lay down their weapons and surrender. While Rendell was being burned by the via exposure, she made sure they remained peaceful in their surrender to authorities.

They were essentially free from Rendell, but they still had to pay the consequences for their crimes. From the end of 1975 through the early ‘80s, the Chimeras were in a legal no man’s land; nobody knew what to do with them and left them in an uncertain limbo. During this time, the Blues and Reds were mandated by law to willfully offer bodily samples to Goliath Corp for medical research, blood, saliva, skin, and so on. These were the days when Aspasia first met John Smith, Caliban’s adoptive brother and the CEO of Goliath Corp. The main reason she had met with him in the first place, as she was still considered the Blue Chimeras’ spokesperson. She remembers the thinly veiled contempt and clinical view in which he looked at her with, as though she shouldn’t exist and was nothing more than materials to be used for the company’s profit. She knew right there and then about the similarities between the mammoth and “Father”, cementing the polite but coldly strained interactions they’ve had.

Before the maximum security prison eventually known as Chimera Row was built, Aspasia and her kin were kept in whatever top-security facilities that would hold them. They were given orange jumpsuits that had to be modified for their tails and legs and kept in small cells. During the times they were allowed to roam the courtyard, her resourceful and vindictive counterparts gave her some of her more noticeable scars. Religious clergy of various denominations would come, hoping to save, enlighten, or at least provide some sort of focus in their otherwise aimless lives. While the Wiccan priests or priestesses, druids, or other various Neopagan types captured the Blues’ attention, speaking with an Eien-no-Yuki based Gruff, who was also a Buddhist monk, really caught the former commander’s notice. He left various books and pamphlets which she readily devoured.

Between studying, speaking for her brethren, and otherwise waiting for whatever sentencing, the mass trials snuck up on the fauness. She was cleaned up for her televised trial and answered a variety of questions regarding her involvement with Rendell and the attacks. In August 1983, she was acquitted of all crimes.

She left Chimera Row with a backpack filled with a few sets of clothes, a handful of books, and a few other necessities. Eien-no-Yuki seemed to be the place calling to her. Whether the Winter Fae settlement was to be her permanent home was unclear, but she knew it would likely send her in the right direction. Through Caliban and Eiko, she made contact with Eien-no-Yuki by way of Evergloam, which had a more hopeful and positive view of the fauns than other Fae communities did.

Aspasia was welcomed by Baron Daisuke Urakawa, Hanako’s father, and she spent several years there, from 1984 to 1997. During her time there, she meditated and worked through her guilt and other negative experiences. While they couldn’t be erased, they had to be accepted and not weigh her down, if she was to contribute to society.

Incursions from Mab’s Court were rare in the normally quiet town, but one occurred in 1995. The gruffs, Malks, and other samurai there were caught off guard, but they fought back valiantly and ruthlessly. Additionally, this was the first time Aspasia had tasted combat since the Battle of Hope. Her analytical mind proved valuable in discovering where Mab’s loyalists were slipping through, as well as fending them off.

Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, Daisuke had been injured, taking an iron blade in his right side. His men rushed him to the healer, but he was losing blood fast. While the old Malk was having problems maintaining focus, Aspasia began singing a strangely familiar yet unknown melody, as though guided by some arcane instinct. The feline Wyldfae’s awareness focused, while the Chimera went to work doing what she knew best, pressing a cloth to the wound. The slash closed, leaving behind a fresh and long scab. It would take a while to get over the taint of the Bane, but Daisuke had been saved.

As he lay against the mat, he noticed a change in Aspasia’s appearance, reddish tufts growing from the tips of her ears. The recognizable glow of Summer’s nobility touched her features. Once the song stopped, the tufts and the Summer countenance disappeared. He alerted the event to the satyress, who appeared alarmed and unsure of how it had happened. She was uncertain as to how she even knew the melody; just that she knew she had to act quickly. This was the first and only time she had been able to access her Wyldfae powers. Initially, she attempted to see if they could be brought forth again, but she had no luck.

A couple years passed, and she consulted the local priest on what her next steps were. He divined that she had matured and grown since arriving in the snow-laden town. She still had many years ahead of her, but her time in Eien-no-Yuki was coming to an end. She would always be welcomed as an honored guest and hero, but he hinted that the next phase of her life was back in Hope.

Due to the odd planar displacements known to Faerie, Aspasia arrived back in Hope in 1998. She knew she needed a job, and she didn’t want to rely on any connections she had to Caliban. She wanted to make her own way.

While staying in a cheap hotel, she saw a wanted ad listed by Coach. She recalled meeting the lich so many years ago, after she had surrendered. The Chimera approached the skeleton man, who was both surprised and wary at her abrupt arrival after hours. She offered to do whatever she needed to earn money and her worthiness. She washed dishes, kept the restaurant clean with a diligence he admired, and was kind and polite to patrons.

Upon realizing the goat woman didn’t have a permanent residence, he offered the back room of his home. It wasn’t large, but there was an extra bed and a place for her few possessions. Over the passing months, an attraction blossomed between them as they got to know one another. Aspasia offered a much needed listening ear to his years in the West, his eventual lichhood, and the strange circumstances that landed him there. She discussed her hardships in Elysium, her time at Eien-no-Yuki, and the singular time she had connected with her Fae side. They were a good, if odd pairing. More official dates occurred, which set the local tabloids on fire with gossip. After they couldn’t rake up anything salacious about them, their attentions settled elsewhere.

Their engagement wasn’t a big to-do, but they quietly married at City Hall, with Aspasia taking his surname he had as a flesh and blood man. Their union produced one child, a daughter named Miranda, taken from The Tempest character. Aspasia realized the priest’s divining had indicated the need for her to take roots in her true residence, and she had certainly found it. The 2000s, 2010s, and early 2020s passed uneventfully, giving her a sense of peace.

Of course, peace seldom lasts. Strange dreams plagued her husband, which he recorded in a dream log and promptly threw in the dumpster. They discussed it and realized it was for the best to keep things quiet, knowing the frightening imagery had been meant for Zeb Buck.

With MacHae’s political intrigues and attack against Hope and its Nexus, she was pulled into the recent activities of the burgeoning superhero team that became known as the Shield Initiative. With it, she was knighted along with Aidan Drake, the McConmaras, Charles Jenkins, Preston Hauser, and Abraham Zahavi, Things settled down for a time, but she feels that she will eventually be pulled back into whatever threats loom over the weird city.

[IamLEAM1983]

Like I said, it's nice. Their having a kid is kind of unexpected, but I'm willing to work with it. :D