fingerworker | Five Stolen Cities

PLAYER

player name: Cygna
pronouns: she/her
age: 25
contact: Cygnahime at plurk, AIM, or tumblr

CHARACTER

character name: Rook Zimin
character title: The Glib Artificer
age: 27ish
gender: female (she/her/hers)
species: human
strengths: watchful and dangerous

history:
Shortly before the twins (the Artificer and her sibling the Alchemist) were born, their parents emigrated to England from Abyssinia. They elected to come to the Fifth City, as the farthest possible place from the family issues they had left behind, and the twins were born in a Jewish neighborhood in Spite. The Artificer is thus one of the natives of the Fifth City, who was raised without the sun.

Without the sun or, in fact, much in the way of raising: their parents had little attention to spare for children, and the twins drifted vaguely into the company of the Fisher-Kings. This suited the Artificer extremely, though not her quieter sibling. Eventually, they left her behind, and she did not see them again for some time.

All good things come to an end, and this is more true than usual for the Urchins. The Artificer was one of the lucky ones, who lived to age out with no particular fanfare. Descending to life at street level was an interesting experience for her. She was not at all sure she liked it.

What she did like was the wider range of education, formal and otherwise, to be found. She fell in with the woman known as the Quiet Smith, and from her learned mechanics, invention, and a little light stonework on the side. The Artificer considers this one of the most precious periods of her life. Unfortunately, the Smith unwisely fell into debt with Hell, and most unwisely believed she could contest the collection. The ensuing fight was a nine-nights'-wonder, and ended with the Smith rather irretrievably dead and the Artificer lacking both mentor and right eye.

At the age of 19, fortune or something like it brought the Artificer back into contact with her sibling, who was living with the Bandaged Occultist as apprentice and lover. Determined not to be separated from her twin any longer, the Artificer eventually managed to convince the Occultist to take her on as an apprentice as well.

This was not to last. The Occultist's researches into the study of true-death and similar topics required a certain amount of raw material in the form of corpses, which the twins were expected to provide. Alarmed and distressed by his demands (never particularly reasonable to begin with), the twins finally sold him out to the Constables. He returned to the Tomb-Colonies after his execution, and good riddance too, in the Artificer's opinion. They never got along.

Now both free and together, the twins established their own apothecary-and-mechanic, Tikkun, in Spite. The Artificer currently works there, doing a bit of everything, as those in the Fifth City are wont to do, but she is rumored to be particularly close to the Clay Men and one of the very few outside their own number they trust with repairs. Yet more appalling rumors of possible connections to the Unfinished Men are surely exaggeration.

personality:
The Artificer is very anxious that nobody believe she cares too much. About anything. And, in fact, there are many things she genuinely doesn't care much about. Like gender norms. People who have only heard of the twins tend to get them confused, because the Artificer favors traditionally "masculine" styles of dress. And traditionally masculine styles of kissing girls. Well, no. She kisses girls in a very feminine style.

She demands attention boldly, as if it's her right, or slyly, as if she's stealing it from someone. Either way, she deliberately avoids fading into the background. Loud, brash, and perpetually amused by just about everything, the Artificer enjoys defying expectations. Her humor is at times a defense mechanism, to keep emotional situations at arm's length and under her control. Sometimes it even works.

As a lifetime citizen of the Fifth City, it takes a lot to genuinely upset or startle her. When something does, she passes through three stages: first and most mildly, affecting unconcern until whatever-it-is goes away; second, quite often, does the human equivalent of a cat's puffing up and yowling; third, if truly pushed into exhaustion or terror, she tends to blank out and lose words entirely, or speak only in Yiddish until she feels more under control. She has since childhood had occasional episodes of spacing out completely (absence seizures are just great), though that's less emotional than it is physiological. Unfortunate, as emotional responses would be more predictable.

There are, however, some things the Artificer deeply and truly cares about. First and most obvious among those is her twin; whether an extension of childhood habit or a more serious bond, she'll do anything for them, and has. When she or what she cares for is under threat, she has very few limits. She's capable of deep emotional attachment, but tends to keep it close to her chest, especially to outsiders. She feels a certain kinship with Clay Men in general and Unfinished Men in particular.

samples:
One Two