Application: VoidTrecker Express

[piercinggaze]

Player Information

Name: Bramble
Age: 31
Contact details: bramble#6628 on discord, bramblepatch
Other characters: none currently

Character Information

Name: Auditi Blyght
Canon: Homestuck (AU fanfiction Miracle Child)
Canon Point: Miracle Child chapter 45: You Come By It Honestly
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OC, based in the Miracle Child AU (effectively no-Sgrub AU dealing with the canonical trolls' entrance into adult society and particularly Gamzee's interactions with the Grand Highblood)
Age: 9 sweeps / ~19 years

World Information: The planet Alternia is the home world of the troll species - sometimes called Alternians - a violently expansionist spacefaring civilization. Almost all of the trolls currently living on Alternia are children, as the empire requires all adults to serve in the unending interstellar war effort to conquer the galaxy (a policy implemented partly to keep aggression turned outward and prevent malcontents from organizing against their own empire after several peasant uprisings). This total exile of all adults has had less impact on childrearing than might be expected; trolls act as highly versatile brood parasites, with larval trolls inducing parental imprinting in a wide variety of the planet's animal life. Each young troll is adopted by a nonsapient animal custodian referred to as their lusus naturae, which typically guards and cares for the troll until they reach adulthood. In the modern era, young trolls are also monitored, governed, and frequently brutally punished by the semi-automated, semi-bioengineered systems of the empire in the absence of their elders. (Not that adult trolls ever took a terribly active role in the lives of their offspring in the first place; pre-exile, children were generally either totally ignored or treated as disposable pawns by adults.)

The Alternian year is referred to as a solar sweep, and is equal to approximately 790 days, or a little over two Earth years. The Alternian day is approximately the same length as an Earth day. Between these two measurements is a deeply complicated calendar based on the orbital periods of Alternia's two moons which canon has never bothered to try to explain and thus I won't either. After pupating into a juvenile humanoid form, trolls grow and mature at approximately the same rate as human children, although many high-caste trolls may ultimately grow much larger than humans.

Modern planetary Alternian culture is... well, it's a civilization of unaccompanied minors being groomed to fanatical devotion to the empire. This includes indoctrination into the brutal caste system typically referred to as the hemospectrum - trolls exhibit a wide range of blood pigmentation, which for some reason is also directly correlated to lifespan, physical and psychic capabilities, and at one extreme, to an amphibious subtype. Trolls with blood colors in the warm part of the spectrum are short-lived, physically frail, and frequently have telekinetic or extrasensory abilities, while trolls with blood colors in the cool part of the spectrum are long-lived, physically stronger, and more rarely may have telepathic or empathic abilities. Under the Alternian Empire, these differences are used to justify a brutally stratified society, with the burgundy-blooded peasants at the bottom, the near-immortal violet-blooded seadweller royalty at the top, and everyone else arrayed somewhere in between by hue. Young "highbloods" are strongly encouraged to assert their dominance over their lowerblooded neighbors by whatever means seem appropriate to them, and are granted access to much higher quality and more plentiful resources.

Modern Alternian Imperial culture is just as cutthroat, of course. Most lowbloods, up through about the middle of the hemospectrum, will spend their entire adult lives in imperial service, either as foot soldiers in the conquest of other worlds or as menial laborers or bureaucrats. Highbloods may have more opportunity for pursuing personal goals, but face a system where the same individuals may hold power for centuries and take exception to any perceived threat to their standing - the most extreme example of which is Her Imperious Condescension, the functionally immortal empress who has reigned since before any other currently living troll was hatched and who summarily executes any imperial-caste troll who survives long enough to challenge her. (In Auditi's day, the current imperial heiress, Feferi Peixes, has reached young adulthood but has not yet made a formal challenge for the throne and has thus far managed to stay one step ahead of the Condesce's forces.)

Auditi's current home is the Barracks-Carrier Levity, a city-sized spaceship in the imperial fleet that serves as a hub for the administrative centers and research and training facilities for a variety of largely mid-to-highblooded noncombat and/or intelligence-focused imperial divisions. The Levity is especially notable for being the primary stronghold of the Grand Highblood, the commander of the Subjugglator corps, a force that serves as equal parts shock troops and secret police for the Condesce herself, but the ship also trains young trolls for the various parts of the intelligence and legal systems and for most medical branches that deal with trolls high enough to merit a serious attempt to heal them rather than cull them or leave them to figure it out on their own.

Personal History: Auditi has had, by Alternian standards at least, a fairly secure and uneventful childhood. As a blueblood, she's roughly the equivalent of petty aristocracy; she's high enough to have had the security and resources to pursue her own interests in relative peace, but not quite as high as the purplebloods and seadwelling violetbloods who are expected as a matter of course to take on leadership roles within the empire. After pupating into her humanoid juvenile form, she and her lusus - a white leucrocotta - settled into a luxurious hive in a relatively secure part of her city. Crocottamom was mischevious and frequently aggressive toward other trolls, but she was one of those lusii that are actually consistently nurturing and affectionate toward their own charges, and Auditi loved her monsterparent to bits. Socially, she associated mostly with other highblood kids, trolls within a couple of steps of the hemospectrum from herself on either side... including several purpleblood kids closely involved with the Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs, a circus-themed doomsday cult with, in the adult population, extremely close ties to the Subjugglators. Although Auditi has always been careful to keep a respectful distance from most of the more formal functions of the Mirthful Church, she's spent most of her life in the social orbit of the cult and while she wouldn't dare affect the ceremonial clown paint worn by many purpleblood cultists, she openly describes herself as a circus cultist and a sideshow performer. This marks her, in most people's eyes, as a little bit of a social climber and a lot of a reckless idiot.

Auditi's interests are perhaps a little less cerebral than those of some bluebloods - she's got a profound fascination with troll anatomy and the ways in which it can be manipulated and modified, and has had since she was a small child. This manifests partly through the usual blueblood preoccupation with fine arts and culture, in the form of a keen interest in piercing, tattooing, and other cosmetic body modifications as a form of self-expression. Beyond the artistry, there's also a spiritual component to her interest; in her participation in the rites of the circus cult, she specializes in blockhead and iron tongue stunts, performing feats of strength or slight of hand using a comprehensive understanding of where it's possible to stick things into herself without causing serious injury. On a more practical level, her career ambitions are also related to this interest - she's been working toward a position as a physindustrialist, making bespoke prosthetic limbs. (Protheses are pretty common among trolls; troll medical science is really good with replacing missing limbs but not necessarily so great with reconstructive surgery, although neither are widely available through legitimate channels to kids, who are more or less considered expendable.) At seven sweeps old (about fifteen, in earth years) she began offering experimental prototypes to other kids.

In the almost two sweeps between her first attempt at grafting a robot limb onto another kid and qualifying for formal training in grafting robot limbs onto people, Auditi successfully installed half a dozen prostheses and failed to install maybe twice that number. Some of her unsuccessful attempts lead to her patient's death on her makeshift operating table. This did not lead to any formal consequences for Auditi - the other kids in question were considerably lower on the hemospectrum than she was, and badly enough injured in the first place that they almost certainly would have been culled before making it to adulthood. There were a couple of cases where the dead kid's friends attempted to escalate and attack Auditi in retribution - one of which she talked down and managed to point at the troll who'd injured their friend in the first place, the other of which she killed in self defense - but generally speaking her status and the company she kept discouraged most potential avengers from attempting to target her. After all, most trolls - even those who would be willing to assault a blueblood - hesitate to pick fights with purplebloods, and Auditi made no secret of her close friendship with several of the local clowns and other circus trolls.

Like all young trolls, her slightly feral childhood came to an abrupt end when she was conscripted into imperial service at eight sweeps. Auditi had no difficulty getting herself assigned to the physindustrialist training cadre - her youthful experimentation had demonstrated an affinity for the work that had been noted by the imperial monitoring drones. For the first time, she found herself in company with other trolls who shared her interests, although not all of her classmates shared her passion for the artistic and expressive side of the process - notably, Equius Zahhak made no secret of the fact that he had been hoping for a more combat-oriented assignment, and Urukku Colada, while competent and attentive to detail, seemed to be one of those bluebloods who was just biding time in his appointed imperial role until he could move on to follow his own passion projects. Her lab partner, a soft-spoken nonbinary blueblood named Alloia Malgam, seemed kind of intimidated by her at first; as time went on, they mellowed to being annoyed by her energy, and developed a competitiveness toward her work that quickly tipped over into flirting in the most combative of troll society's four models of romance. Auditi was entirely receptive to this interest, finding it a welcome change from Alloia's earlier jumpiness, although as of her canonpoint the pair of them haven't officially progressed beyond heavy unresolved tension.

Her posting on the Levity also provided her with the opportunity to deepen her involvement with the Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs; with the Grand Highblood and a sizable contingent of Subjugglators in residence, the ship boasts an active and robust population of circus cultists. Some of the younger ones were trolls Auditi had already known as a child - in her own age class, her friend Arsast Aporia was an acrobat and one of those rare purpleblooded cultists who do not wear clown paint on a regular basis, but she also reunited with several older friends who had left to join adult society over the past few sweeps (just as she now had left some of her younger friends behind on Alterina). For the first time, too, she had the opportunity for extensive contact with other cultists who were drawn to the sideshow shock and stunt acts rather than the more mainstream forms of religious performance. In particular, Initiate Daredaze, a Subjugglator a few sweeps older than her and a sword swallower, kind of took her under his wing - although to tell the truth, she's not entirely sure if he has a soft spot for her or if he just wants to have a good view if she manages to mess up enough to stab herself somewhere important. Maybe a bit of both - purplebloods can be like that.

Through Arsast, she met several of the other purplebloods her own age, kids who hadn't lived close enough on Alternia for her to have met them more than once or twice but now were thrown together on the Levity. Rossan Flarae, an inveterate flirt, barely waited for any sort of introduction to start flitting around a friendly girl his own age, and Auditi found the attention flattering. She's pretty sure he's not looking for a serious relationship, but he's good company, and she's hooked up with him a couple of times over the past few months. The other clowns were a little more reserved. She knew Gamzee Makara by reputation a long while before they ever actually spoke - as a descendent of the Grand Highblood's bloodline, he wasn't exactly low profile, but he carried himself aloof and a little sullen most of the time, and although once she actually met him he seemed nice if a little spacey, he's still hard to get close to. And although she'd talked to Lydain Pelkys a few times in passing, they weren't formally introduced until Lydain took the rather dramatic step of seeking induction into a more esoteric order of the circus and Arsast asked Auditi to help out with the initiation ceremony.

The help needed was a substantial amount of bloodletting - in order for Lydain to survive the initiation, she needed the willing contributions of multiple other trolls. Although Auditi didn't know her well, she saw something of a kindred spirit in Lydain's ambition and faith. As she was comfortable with her own physical limits, and she trusted Arsast, she readily agreed to help. The ceremony went off smoothly, if dramatically, and Auditi gained a grateful ally in Lydain (who now took on the adult title of Initiate Direwhim).

Personality: Auditi is, essentially, a spoiled, self-absorbed college kid - she's old enough to see herself as essentially an adult, young enough to not be taken seriously by people who are actually adults, and has an inflated sense of her own self-sufficiency that comes from a deeply privileged childhood. The latter is especially pronounced in her, even compared to a similarly affluent human 19-year-old. Auditi might legitimately claim to have essentially raised herself - although her lusus was present as a caregiver, a nonsapient animal guardian is not really the same thing as having an adult of her own species taking care of her, and any Alternian child who makes it to adulthood has some claim to independence and competency. She does, on the other hand, have a pretty significant blindspot around the advantages that her position in Alternian society gave her. Auditi's never had to worry about feeding or clothing herself, her hive was comfortable, well-built, and easily defensible, and she's reliably had much better access to medical care than most young trolls. She absolutely will overlook these advantages if asked to consider the conditions of her upbringing - it's a truism that it's hard, being a kid and growing up, and she's not particularly interested in understanding the ways in which it's even harder for lowblooded kids.

The belief that she's tough and self-sufficient is further encouraged by a few factors: one is that she is legitimately physically sturdier than most trolls her age, with an increased physical strength common to her caste, and an extremely high pain tolerance that is unique to her. Another is that while she's highly privileged, she doesn't quite have the mandate to indiscriminate physical violence and psychological terror that her purpleblooded friends have. Auditi's association with the Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs gives her a feeling of precariousness and vulnerability that many bluebloods never really experience, which makes her feel as if she's got a bit of exciting adversity in her life. On the other hand, it's an experience that she mostly has in the context of ritualized spaces and activities where she actively enjoys the adrenaline rush; it rarely crosses over into other aspects of her life or effects her when she's not mentally prepared for it.

And, relatedly, as a non-purpleblooded member of the notorious cult, she's frequently treated with a certain degree of disdain and judgement by other highbloods. Not, crucially, in a way that actually results in any discrimination or unusual aggression toward her, but it's enough to give her a taste of social censure that she can spin out into a bit of a persecution complex. Again, she's not actually disadvantaged by her association with the Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs, which is more or less a state-sponsored death cult and from which she can claim a number of powerful allies. She just feels like maybe she's a little oppressed because sometimes other bluebloods and ceruleanbloods give her funny looks.

Generally speaking, she's cheerful and outgoing, to the point of being overbearing, and if she's a bit of a ditz it's with the full expectation that she'll be able to talk, punch, and/or stab her way out of any trouble she gets into. She likes situations that reinforce her feeling of self-importance and she has a tendency to demand attention from others around her. This inflated sense of ego can make her very susceptible to flattery. On the other hand, she's remarkably resistant to forms of emotional manipulation that would seek to undermine her confidence in herself; a lot of the time, such efforts don't even really register.

Although she can be kind of flighty in just about every other area of her life, she's deadly serious about anything to do with modifying or repairing a person's body. Auditi is deeply passionate about body modification as an artistic form, and her ready access to medical care has enabled her to pursue this art to a degree that would be foolhardy to suicidal in a less well off troll. Some of it she's paid other people to do - the tattoo of a leucrocotta on her lower back, and the intricate geometric shapes etched into her horns, mostly - but her many piercings and most of her tattoos are her own work. She also dabbles in less permanent forms of self-expression through self-modification - she frequently doodles on herself and is prone to impulsive haircuts, and sometimes she experiments with short-term surface piercings which she allows to heal when she's done with them.

She's not indiscriminate about her "projects," though - after all, she very much sees this as a legitimate artform, and she's bright enough to recognize that she's only got the one body to decorate. More or less. Her interest in prosthetics is very much an outgrowth of her interest in self-modification, and she fully intends to undergo one or more elective limb replacements. She hasn't made any real effort to start this process yet - although her size and build are comparable to a human girl of her age, highblooded trolls can grow to much larger than humans, and Auditi intends to wait until she's fully grown to do anything irreversibly dramatic to herself, if only so that she doesn't need to worry about refitting the prosthesis as she grows. This is part of why she's comfortable practicing tattooing on her left hand and arm, honestly - as her nondominant hand, it seems like a logical place to start on her grand project, so she doesn't intend to be stuck with those clumsy knuckle tattoos indefinitely.

Auditi has the typical blueblooded inflated opinion of her own refinement and of the inherent cultural value of her personal interests. She might be dramatic and heavily pierced, but it's a carefully curated aesthetic and she's passionate about the history and technique of bodymodding. Auditi is firmly of the opinion that if someone is disapproving of or uncomfortable with the changes that she's made to her physical form - or that she might plan to make in the future - that reflects poorly on the other party, not on her. Anyone with taste and refinement would understand the value of what she's doing, or at least would feign that understanding to save face. In fact, it's probably fair to say that she enjoys freaking people out a little - by her own logic, this is a power play, grossing the other person out to establish dominance.

On the other hand, she's excitable, and can come on very strongly if someone else has an interesting, obvious modification or prosthesis. This is pure interest, rather than the social posturing that she does when her own mods are called into question; Auditi's intellectual curiosity is almost entirely focused on this topic, and her social graces suffer a little in the face of a novel form of augmentation or decoration to someone's body.

Key themes: Probably the best summary of Auditi, thematically, is self-actualization as a project and a performance - Auditi is at all times enthusiastically prepared to put her blood, sweat, and tears, not always metaphorically, into being herself, and she wishes that self to be recognized for the effort and skill that went into it.

Main Motivation: Insofar as Auditi is motivated, she's motivated by a desire for attention - admiration, for preference, but she'll happily take shock or disgust.

Skills:

• Alternian Physiology - like all trolls, Auditi is relatively physically sturdy compared to humans and able to work through serious injury with less danger of going into shock from pain or blood loss. She is resistant to acid burns but more susceptible to ultraviolet radiation burns than a human would be. Auditi is more sensitive to bright light than a human would be, but has excellent night vision, including the ability to differentiate between colors at much lower light levels than a human would be able to. In addition, like all trolls of her blood color, she is incredibly physically strong for her size (although not to the uncontrolled degree that a few outliers exhibit), and is resistant to psychic attacks or influences (although a psychic who is skilled or powerful would probably still be able to access her mind).
  
• Pain Resistance - Auditi also has an ability to fully shut out mild to moderate pain at will. This is a unique psychic ability rather than an exercise of willpower, although Auditi is not consciously aware of it as such.
  
• Engineering - her focus is primarily on the manufacture and maintenance of artificial limbs, but generally speaking Auditi is competent with small-scale mechanical and electrical engineering technology levels equal or slightly better than 21st century earth tech, as well as with Alternian biotech electronics. She picks up mechanical know-how easily and enjoys figuring out how machines work.
  
• Medical Expertise - Auditi has basic first-aid proficiency, although since her experience is with Alternians she might overestimate the sturdiness of a non-troll patient. She has some experience with more serious triage cases and is maybe a little too comfortable performing emergency amputations. Given appropriate materials and tools, she is capable of constructing and installing prosthetic arms or legs with a moderate degree of articulation and rudimentary haptic feedback, so long as she has a usable portion of existing limb to graft it to - she can do elbows and knees pretty well, but her rate of success goes way down if she has to install a shoulder or hip joint.
  
• Tattooing/Piercing - Auditi knows how to (relatively) safely perform and promote the safe healing of a variety of cosmetic piercings as well as "stick and poke" style amateur tattoos.
  
• Sideshow Performance - primarily, Auditi does blockhead stunts (wherein she inserts objects deeply into her nasel cavity for shock value) and iron tongue (wherein she lifts weights attached to her tongue piercing), although she also dabbles in surface piercing and is beginning to cautiously experiment with sword swallowing.
  
• Combat - although Auditi views herself as essentially a noncombatant by Alternian standards, she has a basic level of competence in hand-to-hand combat that's somewhat enhanced by her strength and high pain tolerance. On the rare occasion she fights armed, it's generally with the paired knitting-needle-like stilettoes trolls sometimes refer to as battle wands (or, in a pinch, with a screwdriver, awl, or similarly pointy tool).

Item: Notebook, approximately 8"x10" and 200 pages, bound in dark grey leather with her symbol embossed on the front cover. It's about two-thirds full of a mix of anatomical studies and schematics for mechanical limbs of varying degrees of practicality.

Sample: Auditi on the TDM

Notes: Canon refers to Auditi's caste as indigo, but this terminology was never used in canon until after I'd begun writing the fanfic she comes from. At the time I started writing, it was more common in the fandom to call the caste above her indigo, and I have continued to use that terminology moving forward in the fic. It feels deeply weird to refer to Auditi as indigo - as a compromise, I'm calling her caste blue, as I do in the fic and as is occasionally used casually in canon, and will refer to the next caste up as purple, as is the canon term. (If other Alternians app into the game, they're welcome to recognize her as indigo; I consider it a translation issue more than anything.)