Anila Vakmero and nameless

Anila Vakmero and [nameless] are a composite character in QUIETUS.

Description:
Anila appears to be a somewhat-shorter-than-average woman with long, vaguely-neglected brown hair and, oddly, a blue tint beneath her skin. Not that you can see most of this under the slightly damaged, blood-stained dark-gray longcoat she wears. She wears also a garishly blue wizard hat, which she stole from the reclusive and clean-shaven Firebeard the Bearded.

The blue tint, however, comes from the fact that her blood is not actually blood - it was rather recently replaced with a shapeshifting organism with the consistency and appearance of blue slime. Surprisingly such a thing did not arise from mad science/wizardry, but instead from the shapeshifter saving her life as she was bleeding to death. There are a few side-effects to this (other than having slime for blood) - when cut she doesn't actually bleed, as an example. The shapeshifter also happens to be a telepath, and usually speaks soley to Anila. Oh, and it's also slowly and inadvertently converting her body into the same substance it's comprised of with little means of stopping it. It's that or kill her, and it doesn't particularly want to do that.

Fortunately for both, she doesn't actually mind as much as you'd expect. Anila is not exactly (or at all) what you'd call normal, and in fact has a very unhealthy fascination with the strange and paranormal. She's never satisfied with mundanity - she has a drive to constantly seek out the bizarre, even if doing so would incur intense risk to herself or even to others. Especially if doing so would incur risk to herself or others. Personality-wise she is best described as being mostly friendly, if a bit spacey. Hanging out with Anila, of course, is not the safest thing a person can do if they value their health, although she's surprisingly good at getting out of bad situations (usually).

The shapeshifter is largely rational and much less adventure-inclined than Anila, but there's not much it can do to stop her. It acts as a voice of reason in her mind, with limited amounts of success. If necessarily it will take action directly, though most of the time it is trapped inside of her body and can do little. If there is have a breach through which it can exit, it will partially do so in order to support its host in any way it can. It is quite apologetic about the whole conversion thing, but it's certainly not going to just leave her bloodless, now, is it? (No.)

Items/Abilities:
Anila carries a strange assortment of items under her coat - a short, rune-etched sword which isn't actually all that sharp and doesn't really have any magical properties, a couple of journals in which words are written by thought rather than with physical implements, and a random assortment of food (and a few other oddities) piled up in a bag which is much deeper than it appears. She has a few other odds and ends as well, but nothing especially useful. She possesses both a decent level of athleticism and a record for spitting in the face of danger and emerging unscathed, as well as the ability to calm or even befriend all manner of monsters, beasts, and other generally unpleasant creatures.

The shapeshifter, foremost, has the ability to largely defy physics in some regards, most notably the ability to levitate at will. Not only can its density be altered freely, but even its mass is somewhat inconsistent. Its only other abilities are its telepathy (a trait which, in a limited regard, it has passed on to Anila) and its unfortunate infectious property, though the latter only occurs due to its integration with her body systems.

Biography:
26 Irefall 893, 13:46

''Finally found the wizard's tower. I think the guy really doesn't want to be found. Why else would he build his tower inside of a dark, empty cave and use more than one dragon to guard the entrance? I've heard a lot about this guy though. One of the best wizards in the world or something. Who knows what he's hiding in there?''

13:58

''Those dragons weren't really very good security. They let me right through without much questioning. Maybe they thought I was delivering food or something, but wait no that's stupid he's a wizard. He can wizard up his own food. That's how wizards work, isn't it? Magical energy stored in their beards or something. Must be called "Firebeard the Bearded" for a reason.''

14:04

Climbed in through a window even though the front door was open. Wouldn't want to miss out on a side room just because it's locked, would I? I think it's just a broom closet. By which I mean it's full of flying brooms. I'm not sure there's actually a way to control them. They keep flying into the walls whenever I get on them. Maybe I'm not magical enough to ride cleaning implements. I put one in my bag next to the food anyway.

14:07

''This place might be bigger on the inside than the outside. Not sure. Either way I'm lost. All the doors seem to be sealed shut, which is a shame. Maybe I'll pick the locks later. I sure wish I actually knew how to do that. Firebeard's probably taking a nap in his library or something. Probably safe to head upward. There are stairs everywhere, so that shouldn't be hard.''

14:08

''First stairs I tried only led into a pantry or something. Nothing but all these really big jars of blue jelly. I tried tasting some but it wasn't very good. Spat it back out. I think it started moving on its own after that. Not going to bother taking wizard jelly with me. Guy might be a great wizard, but he's a terrible cook.''

14:11

I think I'm going to steal Firebeard's hat.

14:14

''I just saw the wizard jelly in the middle of the hallway. I don't really have any idea what it's doing there. You'd think that wizard jelly would stain carpets.''

14:48

''Not much interesting happened in the past half hour. I think this guy locked every single door in his tower, except the jelly room. Talk about paranoia. Does he really think that someone can really get past his dragons and break in oh wait right.''

''Still, it's a shame I can't get to any of the wizard's secrets. Man, I wish I could turn myself into wizard jelly or something and pour through the keyholes to get inside. That would be the most awesome thing ever.''

15:01

''I stole the wizard's hat! Just like I thought, he was dozing over some magical tome. What I also noticed is that "Firebeard the Bearded" is remarkably clean-shaven. I don't really understand wizards. Maybe he just turned his beard invisible or something. That's something wizards can do, right?''

''Whatever. This is an amazing hat. It's like I'm actually a wizard or something. I refuse to take this hat off ever (until I find a better hat). I tried looking through Fire"beard"'s shelves but it was all boring-looking stuff. Nothing about slinging fireballs or opening portals to other planes or anything like that. I'm not sure why they call him a great wizard if this is the kind of stuff he doesn't keep in his library!''

15:11

''Still searching. He must be keeping some great secret at the top of the tower. All wizards do, don't they? I think I made it clear that I don't know anything about wizards, but if I was going to keep something secret that would be the place. All these locked doors, though. Frustrating.''

15:19

oh god

figures he'd do something like this

why would you put a spike trap at the top of your last flight of stairs, firebeard

couldn't you have just hidden a teleport trap or something

getting stabbed really hurts

i think everything's going blurry maybe it's the blood loss

because the stuff's just getting all over the place

my beautiful coat, why would you do this wizard

i bet wizard jelly can't feel pain

the spikes already retracted but i think that's making it even worse

oh god i think i'm dying

oh god

16:23

Um.

''Aren't I supposed to be dead? I'm pretty sure I was bleeding out. Did I bleed back in or something? My skin looks kind of bluish now. Is uh''

Is that normal when you've been stabbed?

16:25

''There's wizard jelly in the hole the spikes left. I think I have wizard jelly for blood now. That's kind of weird and hold on I think it just talked to me''

16:28

''Apparently, wizard jelly is actually an shapeshifting telepathic life form created by Firebeard. He told me that he saved my life while I was bleeding to death up there, so hey, can't complain about that, can I? Besides, now I don't even bleed. This is amazing! He says to stop using the word "he" to describe him, but whatever, I don't care. I think I should probably get going before Firebeardless down there wakes up. He might notice that his head is a bit cold, or maybe that he doesn't have anything to put with his wizard peanut butter. That'd be a shame. Anyway, expedition successful!''