“Wrong? There's nothing wrong with me. Okay, well there are some things, but none that any of you can fix.”
Information[]
Race: Mutant (snake)
Class: Scout
Guild: She prefers to let her hair flow in the wind as she rides through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset.
Occupation: Mercenary
Original Birthplace: the Grand Canyon
Appearance: A tall, skinny woman with short white hair and a green scale pattern going from the upper right part of her forehead to the top of her left cheek. Mostly wears green and black.
History[]
The Tribe[]
Adder and Ninia Bindweed were twins, born into a secluded tribe nestled in the natural paradise of the Grand Canyon. Though they traded with people from the “Abovelands” and were technologically sound, they were hardly ever influenced or invaded by the communities outside the canyon.
When the sisters turned ten, they were given a choice between two areas of work: hunting, or gathering. When they would turn fifteen, they would be able to choose other jobs, but this choice would set them on a certain path for the rest of their lives. Ninia had an exceptional sense of smell, so she was chosen to become a gatherer, and Adder, with her acute sight and hearing, became a hunter. Though the sisters were on different paths, they never missed an opportunity to spend time with each other, specifically at night. They would go up to an old bridge that used to stretch across the entire canyon (but had fallen apart in the days of the war) and watch the sky become their own personal light show. When they were young they would run across that bridge all the way to the edge, with their arms out like they were flying. Every night, they dreamed of leaving the world they lived in and exploring the Abovelands, but their age, lack of experience, and the thought of leaving their families behind always held them back.
The Annual Climb[]
Every year, the Tribe decided to hold a contest for those souls curious enough to venture into the Abovelands. If they managed to scale a large, sheer cliff, then they could leave and explore to their hearts' content. Adder and Ninia tried for several years, but eventually, with a lot of practice, they made it.
Kasm[]
For years the twins roamed Kasm working odd jobs here and there. There were some tough moments, but as long as they were together, it seemed like there was nothing they couldn't do. But then there were...really tough moments. They learned very quickly that a lot of other groups they met were incredibly territorial. And most of them didn't ask politely for them to leave. Ninia, who believed in a life without violence, would never draw a weapon against someone else, so Adder was left to defend her and her sister. Growing up as a hunter and a warrior, Adder was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and using the land to her advantage.
The Bobcats and Dr. Wells[]
But one time, the twins bit off a bit more than they could chew when they stumbled into the territory of a pack of anomalies called the Bobcats. Long story short, Adder got hit on the back of the head with a club. Hard.
That was the only time Ninia drew a knife to protect her sister. She managed to defend herself long enough to get Adder away from them and into a nearby town that they had never been to. She begged for help, and eventually a human doctor agreed to take her in, but said that it might take a couple days. Ninia agreed and rented an apartment near the doctor's house. It was only until she saw how normal residents treated mutants like her that she realized she had made a terrible mistake.
Dr. Wells was an incredible doctor, and his patients always walked out of his office happy and healthy. That is, all of his human patients. In reality, he was a very racist individual and liked to think that he had developed a cure for mutants and ghouls—to cure them of the radiation that plagued them. For the next couple hours, Adder was subjected to numerous tests, both good and bad, and a lot of neurological torture. If not for the poison in her blood to counteract the Radvac that Wells pumped into her bloodstream, she would have died.
But about 15 hours after Ninia dropped her off, she broke into the hospital there and managed to get Adder out of Dr. Wells' clutches before he killed her. They ran until they found another town that was kinder towards mutants and ghouls before Ninia tried to inspect Adder. It seemed that Wells had cured the internal bleeding she had gotten from the Bobcats, but the hit had also given her minor brain damage near her hippocampus, which controls both short-term and long-term memory. Wells had left that part alone.
At first, it didn't seem to be much of a problem. She was still able to walk, talk, eat, fight, and work, so Ninia called it a miracle and they kept exploring together. But after a couple of weeks, Ninia noticed a definite change in Adder's fighting style. She became more erratic and more prone to brutally injuring—and at times killing—her attackers rather than just defending herself and her sister. A few more weeks and Adder started suffering from night terrors and memory loss. And as the older sister, Ninia felt that she was responsible for why Adder was like this. She tried to consult a few medics to see what was wrong, but none had any definite answers. A lot of them thought that she was developing some kind of coping mechanism to deal with what happened to her, but Ninia thought that there had to be more than that. Some thought it was internalized anger, but while Adder was known to be hotheaded at times, she had shown self-restraint before.
Ninia's Death[]
Then, one night, Adder didn't recognize Ninia at all. It was only for a few minutes, but Ninia knew that at that point they had to seek real, proper help. After traveling for a few more days, they came across a mutant-friendly village with a human medic/therapist named Ilo. He told them that he would be more than willing to help Adder with her problem and suggested she start with therapy. He worked with Adder, suggesting techniques to help with her nightmares and erratic behaviors. After maybe a week or so, Ilo sensed a definite improvement, and Ninia suggested that after Ilo healed Adder they would go back home to the tribe and live the peaceful life that they used to live.
That night, Adder had a night terror about Dr. Wells. She was being tortured in his lab again, but this time Ninia was there too, laughing at her misfortune, saying that she knew Wells was a terrible person and sent her there on purpose. Fueled by anger and fear, Adder woke up, found her dagger, and proceeded to shoot down Ilo (who in hindsight looked a bit like Wells—they had the same hair color and glasses), who was sleeping on a cot in her room. Ninia rushed in to see what the noise was, but Adder shot her down as well and escaped from the village that night. It is assumed that Ninia's cause of death was from bleeding out rather than the rupture of an organ; Adder didn't shoot to kill, only to slow her down if she were to run after her.
Fragile Mind[]
From then on, Adder's mind spiraled into one of chaos and uncertainty wherever she went. Most days she seemed fine, but other days she was convinced that she was a murderer and didn't deserve to live. Soon the trauma was too much for her and she subconsciously forgot that the entire incident happened, as well as Ninia's entire existence (see Dissociative Amnesia). Despite that, sometimes she would look up at the stars and feel a sense of nostalgia without knowing where it came from.
However, her behavior was still affected, and she got a little unpredictable. Her fighting style changed, as did her view on life, and she became a mercenary. She's hopped from town to town ever since, doing jobs for random people and then leaving directly afterwards, so as to not draw attention to herself. The only things that she has to remind her of her former life are her hunting dagger, the colors she wears, and a small tattoo on her arm from her tribe.
Greyfell
New in Town[]
She came across a small town named Greyfell at one point, and did a job for a trio of neo-Communists who invited her to join their cause, but she soon skipped town after declining their offer. After all, she almost died doing their little “job.”
Greycoast[]
She came across the citizens of Greyfell again a year later, this time meeting up with and agreeing to work with a band of mercenaries called the House of Mowse. She got paid for her work, and met up with a band of mammal-based mutants who called themselves the Burrow. She found them—particularly Octavia, the so-called leader of the group—to be interesting and a bit endearing. So she made a decision to stay with the people of Greycoast for the time being.
Personality[]
Adder is a mutant who speaks the language of sarcasm and snark fluently. She's also a bit sadistic, as she takes pride in the jobs she's done. She often snickers at random things, even if someone watching can't tell where the humor is. She also seems to have a bit of a showman's side to her. She has a soft side too, you just need to know how to find it.
Trivia[]
- Adder's tattoo on her arm means “swiftness.”
- The engraving on Adder's dagger means "venom" or "poison."
- Adder has a powerful venom in her blood that she coats her blade with.
- The reason Adder wears just green and black most days is because those colors actually mean something. Her tribe used colors to tell their stories a lot. Green was the color of something rare, generous, and beautiful, since something green was rare to find in the desert and it usually gave the members of the tribe food. Sometimes it was used to represent the tribe itself if someone came in from the Abovelands to discuss things. It's Adder's own way of saying she's unique and will offer her services to anyone she meets. Black was the color of an experienced hunter, since black blended into the night. Hunters who hunted during the night were considered incredibly talented. But she also wears them because it's become a bit of a habit over the years.
- Despite her backstory, she's actually pretty ok with her life, and there may be redemption for her...who knows?