Crouching Bacon

Spoiler

• Agility - Though training in the martial arts has helped a lot in developing Aera's agility, her classes on dance were also fundamental in increasing it. Empyria would be shamed, having a princess that could not dance (or so her mother claims).
   
• Communication - Being part of the royal family involves building and maintaining relationships with other countries. It helps that Aera has a rather friendly disposition, and can usually talk things out before they devolve into fist fights.
   
• Intelligence - Being the scholar that he is, Lorcan would die rather than allow his daughter to grow up uneducated. Schooled by the best tutors of the land, Aera is rather bright for her age... though her intelligence is usually manifested in finding creative ways to get out of class without her father knowing.
   
• Medicine - Due to her native intelligence, Aera is able to utilize herbs to create medication and heal injuries as well as most common diseases, especially those that happen on the batlefield. Some have even advised her to become a healer instead of a soldier... not that she would have agreed.
   
• Animal Husbandry - Aera is quite fond of animals, especially dogs and horses.

• Her version of the royal armor - It is lighter than the official version since she dislikes the extra weight. This comes at the cost of lessened defense, but allows for a greater range of movement.
• The Lichtgestalt
• Two small vials of healing waters
• A small vial of strong liquor (usually for the dying soldiers)
• small knife strapped to her inner thigh

• Lysander vi Empyria - Aera's elder Brother, about five years her senior. The two have a rather close bond, as Lysander proves to be the kind of brother that most parents would want for their daughters. That is not to say that they never fight; it is just that Aera is far too easy-going to hold grudges, while Lysander is too wise to hate things without reason. Also, though she hates to admit it, his presence does make her feel safe whenever things get too dangerous.
   
• Tyr the Grey Wolf - Aera's first friend outside the castle. She ran into him on one of her escapades into the city; he was about to be captured by the local peacekeeping force due to his suspicious appearance. Ever the heroine, Aera manages to persuade the guards to let him go. The fact that he didn't recognize her at all amused Aera so much, that she abandoned her plans and decided to spend the day with him. After giving Tyr a tour around the city, the two became good friends.
   
• Garm Vauxof Bernard - Aera's childhood friend and son of Aera's teacher, William Vauxof Bernard. When he could, he joined in on lessons with Aera and occasionally challenged her. He shows natural talent with the sword; this earns Aera's respect. The two got along quite well; not a day went by that she doesn't visit him, even when she was supposed to be in class. Later, their individual duties began keeping them apart, Aera having to deal with matters of the state and Garm having to train as a guard. Their friendship is no longer as close as it was before, due to him realizing and taking to heart the vast difference in social standing.

• Name: Aspen Holzer
• Codename: "The Paper"
• Apparent Age: 19
• Gender: Female
• Species: Experimental Transhuman Demigod Hybrid
• Occupation: Mercenary

• Eyes: Dark-blue, almost violet in direct sunlight.
• Height: 5'2
• Body Type: Lean, athletic build.
• Hair Description: Dark, short, and styled for convenience on the battlefield.
• Accessories: Occasionally wears a necklace with a black crystalline pendant on it. This serves as a limiter of sorts. Aspen only wears it when she feels relatively unstable on a particular day. Also, she usually carries at least one katana when walking around, even in designated non-combat areas.

Aspen isn't one to hold back, either in the bar or on the fields of battle. Once something has grabbed her interest, she will pursue it at all costs, no matter how mundane or stupid it seems to the rest of the world. If she had the chance to pick an ability, she probably would have chosen something related to pyrotechnics. Unfortunately for her, she never had the luxury of choice, being a laboratory specimen. Due to her experiences as a test subject, the ability to exercise freedom is of utmost importance to her as she is done with blindly following orders. Aspen is quite willing to work with a team though, so long as they prove themselves quite capable of protecting her back as she is theirs.

Despite the physical abuses she has gone through under the hands of the scientists, Aspen has no psychiatric disorders. However, these abuses have left scars across her body, and as a result, she is quite sensitive to physical contact. This may prove as a trigger point if she is touched without her permission. Wounds only serve to make her more aggressive– as it has been said, a dying soldier has nothing to lose.

Ever since the advent of science, advancements in weapon technology has progressed quite exponentially. However, so has genetic experimentation. Projects that involved this controversial branch of science have largely been kept out of the public eye, as it raised far too many ethical considerations. The specimens were obtained from orphanages that could no longer afford to care for the children, as it would prove easy to make them disappear without anyone missing them too much. Also, the younger the specimen, the higher the chances of survival.

Aspen Holzer happened to be one of the 500 children gathered for the experiment, and most notably, the only known survivor of the entire procedure called RE-WRITE, wherein the subject's genetic structure was altered by removing and adding chromatids that are either obtained from animals or synthetically produced.

In order to test her capabilities, countless tests were carried out to find the limits of this new technology. Time and time again, Aspen managed to surpass and even break the expectations of the scientists. It came to the point where they could no longer physically hold her captive at the age of 10, as she was capable of breaking down steel doors with kicks despite being untrained for physical combat.

To acquire more funding for the RE-WRITE project, they rented her out to the military for espionage-type missions. After proving her capabilities, the military began putting her into the front-lines as an unregistered soldier. The battles always turned out to be in their favor... so long as she was compensated well.

Eventually, Aspen realized that both her creators and the military were no longer capable of restricting her should she choose to defy their orders. After a few failed attempts, she managed to escape from her cell and disappear from their radar. The escape was made possible by a sympathetic scientist who could no longer live with the abuses he helped commit.

She currently lives on the run, relying on her skills and military experience to provide mercenary services as a means of getting income.

Aspen is proficient in the use of numerous weapons but her weapon of choice is a katana, especially for close combat situations.

Even guns are utilized as an extension of melee weapons, as she dislikes long-ranged combat.

She does not have the patience to stay out of the battlefield, even if ordered to do so.

Hypersensitivity to senses - All senses are acutely attuned to the surroundings, from sight to touch. This is due to the various mutations in her genetic structure that mimic those of animals (ex: superior eyesight due to some genes from bird species, acute sense of smell from canines, etc.) One downside of this hypersensitivity is that pain becomes an issue. To counteract this, Aspen takes specialized medication when she expects that a mission will result in severe physical wounds. The opposite is true as well; well-placed hugs can immediately comfort her as the pleasure of meaningful human contact is magnified.

Superior Endurance and Strength - Aspen is capable of running several hours without slowing down, although this carries with it the risk of severe muscle damage. Simply put, she is a sprinter, not a marathon runner. The burning sensation of muscle pain does not sit well with her.

Regenerative Capabilities - It takes a matter of minutes for Aspen to heal deep lacerations, and about a week to regrow decapitated limbs, including the head so long as a portion of the brain stem is intact and the decapitated body is put on life support. She is still mortal, though her rugged physical healing factors make her seem nigh invulnerable. She may even seem flameproof; what happens is that her skin regenerates faster than the flame can destroy it.

RE-WRITE - To a certain extent, Aspen can manipulate her genetic structure giving her the ability to change forms while still maintaining her sentience. This allows her to take on animalistic forms of her own design and imbue them with abilities of her choosing. For example, she can make venomous enzymes that are delivered through bites or scratches, even if the form chosen appears to be harmless. If she chooses to morph into a form that requires more mass than that which her human flesh provides, she can either consume more calories as appropriate for the energy gain, or alternatively, maintain physical contact onto another carbon-based organism to use their mass to transform into larger forms. The only limit to this ability is the amount of mass she can gain access to at the moment.

This ability can also be used to form antibodies, vaccines and the like when needed. Basically, Aspen is a sentient bio-chemistry lab.

Alternatively, the introduction of foreign chemicals into her bloodstream can also affect her combat capabilities very quickly. Drugs can boost her reaction speeds as well as weaken her sense of pain, however this also makes her more aggressive and less careful.

PAPER CUT- Aspen's blood has curative properties and can serve as a liquid bandage of sorts– if synthesized and processed. In its raw form however, it is a biohazard. When the blood comes into contact with something, it turns into an acid that cannot be neutralized with alkaline substances aside from that produced by her own body. Acting as an acid, it eats away at anything it comes into contact with, so long as it contains matter.

WATERMARK - This is a peculiar side-effect of her abilities. Though her skin heals quickly, if she feels fear when a wound is inflicted, it heals but remains as a scar.

FAHRENHEIT 451 - Unbeknownst to Aspen, she is capable of not only changing mass, but also using energy to control and create fires. This is a result of her demonic lineage that she knows nothing about, since she was raised in an orphanage. This ability only comes into play when she is under extreme physical, mental, or emotional stress. After it is used, Aspen becomes unconscious and remembers nothing about it.

Theoretically, she can learn how to control it, but at the moment, she still needs some training.

Other demonic abilities may reveal themselves in time, but at the moment, since she is unaware of this side of her, she cannot tap into it consciously.