Azquine

Skin

## Pre-SMP Life

Azquine lived as an ordinary human millennia ago, before the apocalypse began. Within the tight-knit community of her little village, she was an outsider.

Embracing the solitude, she became something of an archivist. Dedicating themselves to collating as much knowledge as they could to keep themselves busy.

Their pursuit of knowledge began nobly, but without any form of restrictions upon them the information they were chasing became dangerous. Her dealings with dark and unknowable forces were soon discovered by the understandably wary village, who were prepared to go to drastic means to put an end to it and maintain their peace.

## Pre-SMP Death

Azquine remembers fire being one of the last things they saw. However, the injuries which linger upon their incorporeal form are not burns.

Since their return their back has ached horrifically, and their neck even more so. Angry looking bruises which never fade mar the flesh from their shoulder blades to their tailbone.

Her voice has never been the same, the act of speaking bringing discomfort both physical and otherwise. Instead she writes, relying on her pet birds to send messages far away. She rewards them handsomely for their efforts.

Sometimes they get a clearer glimpse of their death in their sleep **(see section: Dreams)**, the memories of which slip away thereafter like water off of a smooth waxed stone.

No matter what the truth of their death might be, they are now deeply afraid of fire.

## Post-Death Life

After millennia of being fully dead, Azquine re-awoke. The circumstances of how this came to be is a major point of interest for her, of which she has no idea how to pursue. Her only clue being that it likely has something to do with the more reckless pursuits she had followed in life. That her presence here was not supposed to happen, and is instead reliant on the whims and hands dealt by powerful beings in a game beyond her understanding.

Azquine has currently taken up residence in an abandoned house located at the top of a mountain overlooking Aetherpage Library. She has since renovated this house, turning it into an observatory. Since returning to life they have found themselves to be selectively mute, happily communicating though messages, but rarely their voice. This is less a choice derived from discomfort, but a seeming inability with no apparent source. They simply cannot make a sound.

She holds a large amount of enthusiasm and dedication towards the Aetherpage library and all who are associated with it, holding it to the same regard as she held her own destroyed archive. As the library is the largest available source of knowledge, it is herself ascribed purpose to serve it. This duty comes before any of her own needs, beliefs, and morals.

They still feel an intense need to document all they can, and as such record their day-to-day life and innermost thoughts in a set of books in their home. They do not allow themselves to hide these books or otherwise make them inaccessible to all others, but do not feel it appropriate to submit them to the library.

She has recently placed a will in the Aetherpage dedicating the few possessions they have to the library. The Observatory and Journals being the main objects of note.

## The Void

The tether which ties Azquine to the material plane is weak, as with most phantoms as they glide through solid items with ease. But while most phantoms tethers are like thread through the eye of the needle, Azquine's is like yarn scraped away into the same width. It is frayed and dangerously fragile, causing her to slip out of the plane of the living and into the void for an indeterminate amount of time.

The void tends only to claim Azquine during periods where she is less present, such as in her sleep. As such she had never noticed her blips out of reality until one took over a month away from her. Up until that point she had thought she was simply misremembering dates and having dreamless nights.

As the unsureness of whether they will return from the void each time it claims them grows, the further they spiral into the very same habits that proved fatal. A desperation to do something great, to rally behind some cause or person who will lead them to that. A willingness to discard more and more of their morals as long as it suits their ends. This has reached new heights after a particularly long blip, Azquine being prepared to sacrifice their life rather than fade without a trace. They will make an impact on this world. By any means and cost.

They haven't much to lose. They are already dead.

## Dreams

###### Excerpts from 'Entry 7- Dream':

*'Dreams come sparsely, the rest are nothing but void. After the latter has consumed a whole month, I suspect that the term '*void*' is more literal than first thought. The dreams I do have are often the same set of circumstances slightly altered and regurgitated.'*

*'All of them start by enveloping me in darkness (NOT VOID. It is not void. Not even darkness is in there.) And then- a single source of light'*

*'Sometimes the light is nothing but a spark. Lingering two seconds at most before disappearing. Then another. Again, and again until I stumble upon the source. An abandoned flint and steel on the ground. Darkness becomes blinding light. The ground disappears. The air in my lungs is violently tugged away. I wake.'*

*'Other times a dull glow emanates from a looming figure. My mind burns with every second I am in their presence, even more so as I try to comprehend what my eyes perceive.' Limbs twisting round and round and round and a torso circles towards itself and a head turns inside out and and in and out and in and ... I reach out. I don't know why. Why did I reach out?'*

A combination of fearing they might not return from the void and a want to avoid these nightmares is causing Azquine a steady decline into severe sleep deprivation. The feeling of being hunted by what in name is now their kin is an irony that stings.

The latest development from her dreams was a request from an entity to build a cathedral in their name, feeling in need of a project and seeing no negatives to doing so, she agreed. The nether brick gothic cathedral is located on a hill overlooked by the observatory, the stained glass giving the appearance of red and yellow eyes ever watching. Azquine is proud of the work that went into this building, but is also unnerved as to what deity it is subject to and what the request to build it means.