Character Examinations

1. Becoming (or Meeting Nosurin Nortok)

The nameless child looked incensed, and the aged doctor paused awkwardly, screwing up her grey, cadaver-like face until she resembled a twisted sheaf of bark. Why did she fear this child so much? She was just another vagrant thing, half- starved and likely without any allies to kill for her if need (or want) be, and certainly quite powerless, even against the relative weakness of Nosurin herself. Yet the insightful doctor could sense the little girl was so unlike a child, so full of sentiments foreign to even the old woman (after an impressive lifetime in the marshy south Makai), that it jarred her into a state of constant alertness, as if at any moment her own head and heart would be severed by that tiny, quaking hand across from her.

The young girl's remaining arm moved up and Nosurin tensed, but it was simply to brush away some filthy, tangled orange hair from her eyes. What the woman did not know what that the girl was truly terrified of the world she had so recently stumbled into, and that the sickly urchin masked her fear with anger. What Nosurin did see, however, was that this half- corpse, this half- girl, simmered like a pot of boiling water filled far too much, and that any added heat would push turbulent bubbles over the edge of the pot (Nosurin tried to contemplate this in literal terms, but wisely decided against it).

The girl's hard mouth broke into a subtle sneer. "You've got to be joking. How am I supposed to get the money for cybernetic limbs?" She did have a point. What possibly could be done to earn money, considering the state the girl was in? From what Nosurin understood, the child was fairly intelligent, but without the use of her limbs, that would do very little for her in the end. Nosurin had so little money that the best she could do was feed the child and offer her what little warmth she could. But that hospitality could only last for a time.

"Do you..." Nosurin bit her plump, grey bottom lip. "…Have any talents in particular- anything non- physical that could earn you money?" It was a rather useless, foolish question, but Nosurin would have felt worse if she did not suggest anything.

Surprisingly, the little girl looked decidedly forlorn at the question. She sighed quietly and stared out of the window next to her bed. Her round little head remained fixed there for some moments before she replied, "My only talent is gone now." She opened her mouth, as if she longed to continue, but a sudden, a hard look came over her face, and she looked away, shutters suddenly slammed shut.

Nauseated, the doctor attempted another idea, but it came out stuttered and incomprehensible. Swallowing thickly, she managed an articulate "errr"; years of experience filled the short, rotund demon doctor's mind with gruesome and unpleasant images. She could tell from this young lady's uninjured half that she had been very pretty before her accident, whatever it was, and whatever caused it. She was still pretty to Nosurin, but in a more spiritual sense; intuitively, she knew the injuries held a brutal and self- metamorphosing truth behind them- her mind itched to know what that truth could be, but she knew her place and did not ask.

"Why are you looking at me that way?" Now the corpse- child's left face quirked in confusion so genuine that Nosurin's jaw nearly dropped. This girl could not understand another's empathy for her. Any inherent gentleness within the child must have been consumed by a shadow, opposite self- a sort of armour or business suit that never came off - she did what she needed to to survive in a world that honestly could not give a damn about her or anyone else.

Still that dark blue eye remained locked on her, and Nosurin felt like weeping, but refused to for the sake of her own dignity.

A horrid, pinched little smile wrenched across the redhead's face as she said, "I need a name, too; something I'll like, something to be proud of. Help me out, would you?"

Nosurin simply stared at her blankly.

"No name for me, then," she concluded gruffly, and turned to face the window. "It's just as well. I don't need one anyway."