| Relatives | The Pale King (father), Hera the Beast (mother), Ghost (sibling), Hollow (sibling) |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common |
| Affiliations | Silver Lining Crew |
| Aliases | The Human Child |
| Marital Status | Unwed |
| Place of Birth | Deepnest |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female (she/her) |
| Height | 5’0 |
| Weight | 100 lbs |
| Eye Color | Red |
Hornet is the princess of the lost kingdom of [redacted], though she has long since left that life behind. She pilots an HES&H Moss Mantis mech. Hornet shows up in the Lancer open table campaign In The Shadows of a Willow.
Physical Appearance
Hornet is relatively short, being just five feet tall, though her cool demeanor and hard-set eyes more than make up for her lack of height. She has long white hair, sharp red irises, and pale skin. Her body had a decent amount of muscle and faded scars from years spent fighting, but this is usually obscured beneath her chosen attire. Hornet’s typical pilot outfit is a black bodysuit under a red cloak that has been outfitted with flight capabilities. When activated, the cloak flares out with feathery, white wings.
Personality
Hornet is fairly blunt and can come across as aloof. She puts much of her focus into finding effective and efficient ways to achieve whatever task is currently at hand. According to her, she once reveled in her own strength, but has since come to view it as a tool. Hornet has a cool disdain for most NHPs, though this hasn’t prevented her from working with them if she deems it necessary. The obvious exceptions to this disdain are her legionnaire siblings Ghost and Hollow (who are essentially NHPs within artificial bodies). Despite her task-focused nature, Hornet enjoys putting good into the world where possible. In quiet moments, she finds comfort in playing music.
History
“Once, we knew not of gods.
Perhaps that was their greatest trick:
Coming unto us when we were nonbelievers.”
—Lament for [redacted]
The Pale King couldn’t have been human, nor could he have been a paracausal flicker like RA. For what human is so unknowable, and what being of paradox has such concrete wants? The people who came to speak of him took to calling him a Higher Being. Whatever he was, he appeared as a handsome human man, bearing a strength more powerful than any mech: a will which could not and would not be ignored. He claimed a kingdom for himself on an unsuspecting planet, and he named that kingdom [redacted]. The Pale King took a wife for himself who came to be called the White Lady. What she may have been named before does not matter. Together, they ruled their kingdom in simple, perfect tranquility. Yet, for all his stunning and terrible identity, the Pale King was not the only such Higher Being who wanted his kingdom. The Radiance may have come before him and she may have been blissfully dormant before the undeniable will of the Pale King awakened her. Regardless, she had no desire to become a forgotten page in the king’s legacy. To be so desperate to avoid being forgotten is something deeply human, isn’t it? How strange, that beings beyond mortality can sometimes cross lines so familiar to the mortal mind.
Hornet’s birth was the result of a bargain between The Pale King and the Queen of Deepnest, Hera. Deepnest was nestled beneath the ground of [redacted], home to all sorts of horrors that could be co-existed with simply by not thinking about them. Hera knew not what the Pale King truly was, but she knew that she wanted him to sire her child. As such, their agreement was made: Hera would give herself to help quell the Radiance, and the Pale King would grant her a child. How exactly Hornet was conceived isn’t known, but she was born and recognized as the princess of both Deepnest and [redacted]. She was raised in both kingdoms, as both were her birthright, and taught the arts of lethal combat and decisive survival. Hornet grew to be quite the capable warrior-princess. She went on to lead soldiers against those under the Radiance’s control when the Pale King’s plan to combat the other Higher Being failed. Such battles were fought in vain, but Hornet couldn’t have known that.
[Content Warning: Weaponized children and referenced infanticide. Skip to the paragraph that starts with “Hornet spent years guarding the ruins of her home” to avoid these topics.]
It is impossible to describe the king’s plan as anything other than cruel. Together, he and the White Lady conceived many children. These children were closest in essence to legionnaires and very paracausal in their nature. Most of them died to the Pale King’s efforts to create a vessel with “no voice to cry suffering”. His aim was to trap the Radiance’s consciousness within this vessel. When he had one he deemed suitable for the task, the other survivors were sealed away. This ideal vessel was named Hollow. Hornet and Hollow knew each other, though they were never allowed to become too close since that would have only ended in grief. Eventually, the king enacted his plan, using the combined essences of Hera and two others as focal points to bind the Radiance to Hollow. Unfortunately, this plan failed, and the will of the Radiance was able to seep into the minds of the kingdom’s denizens, turning them from their king and igniting a war. Hornet fought in the Radiance War, though it was pointless in the end. [redacted] was destroyed. The Pale King disappeared. The White Lady died. The Radiance was left to puppet the minds of the survivors through what limited control she could maintain.
Hornet spent years guarding the ruins of her home. This was until Ghost, another one of the Pale King’s legionnaire children, emerged from where they’d been sealed. Ghost went on to slay the Radiance’s consciousness and liberate Hollow from acting as her imperfect vessel. The three siblings left [redacted] behind, choosing to become Lancers and take on various jobs. They keep in close contact and see each other when they can. Ghost (callsign: VOID HEART) pilots a mech nicknamed the Shade Lord while Hollow (callsign: PURE) pilots one called Vessel.
Bond: Pathfinder
Major Ideal
Curiosity: “I am not myself if I cannot care about what I do not know.”
Exploration: “I have lost something if I cannot venture into thoughts I haven’t had yet.”
Understanding: “I am but a beast if I cannot extend my perception to something beyond myself.”
Minor Ideal
There is always someone
who in being found
will find you.
Hornet makes it a point to converse with experts whenever possible. There is much to be learned.
Where Have You Traveled In Your Dreams?
I thought I had drowned within my own blood
But it was Pale enough to see through.
Hornet often dreams of venturing into a cold, still blackness at the center of herself. She tries not to think too much about these dreams, or why they feel so anchoring.
Bond Power: Dabbler
Someone once said that a spirit is here
to wander. And the body is born to
contain. The mortal mind exists to
adjudicate between the two. But our
essential essence is always a dispute.
Hornet has dabbled in many things over the course of her life. It doesn’t take much effort for her to switch her mentality to better accommodate a particular skill set.
Mech Hangar
Silk
[redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redac-
Rest, poppet. Pale blood cannot keep you from your slumber.
[redacted] [redacted] [redac-
Rest, darling. When red blood flows it will warm your sweet skin- [redacted]
[redacted]
Rest, child. Rest and feed. Rest and feed. Rest and-
[REDACTED]
THERE WILL BE NO SILENCE
[ R E D A C T E D ]
When Hornet was younger, she piloted a mech similar to the ARC Kali (at least in function) named Silk. This was the mech she fought in during the Radiance War, but it remains in [redacted]. It reminds Hornet too much of gods and failure; she can also no longer stomach interacting with the mech’s NHP, Midwife.
Needle
Currently, Hornet’s mech of choice is an HES&H Moss Mantis named Needle. The mech’s main/auxiliary mount has the Hunting Talons and Stinger Daggers equipped. The Hunting Talons are claws designed to deliver harsh puncture wounds to even the thickest hulls; even when they don’t manage a direct hit, they still leave nasty damage in their wake. Stinger Daggers, meanwhile, are a near limitless supply of highly accurate small blades that easily pierce through armor.
The HES&H Moss Mantis has three frame traits. Because of its Spindly Frame (and general design for swift and/or surprise attacks) it can never mount heavy or super heavy weapons. Its Bloodsense ability allows the pilot to always know if characters have taken half or more of the damage their hull (or body) is able to handle before invoking system trauma. Killing Intent allows it to deal extra armor piercing damage to those affected by Bloodsense. The Moss Mantis’ core system is the Executioner Mobility Suite, which has two functions. Firstly, the mech is highly capable of launching surprise attacks against isolated enemies who haven’t noticed it. Secondly, it can instantly destroy the current structure of a target marked with Bloodsense and heavily cripple their next structure if they aren’t outright destroyed.
In addition, Needle has increased fortitude due to Hornet’s personalizations, the Knife-Jumper system to allow limited teleportation, armament redundancy in case one of its weapon mounts would be destroyed from system trauma, an EVA module for ease of movement in low gravity or underwater, and the Knee-Breaker targeting system to knock opponents prone.