Marionette

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Basic Information

Name: Marionette (Mari or Marion)
Gender: female
Orientation: demisexual
Birthdate: January, 307
Breed(s): Border Collie
Variant: Augment Watchdog (nnt^at)
Mutation: n/a
Played by: Tarte

Appearance

Height: 20 inches at the shoulder
Build: lithe
Description:

At a glance, Marionette does not seem too particularly unique. Her height and build are average for most of her breed, and she does not sport any mutations that might make her stand out from the crowd. Pale blue eyes mix with amber, and certain lighting will give her what appears to be two completely different eyes. Her thick coat, primarily white with smears of pale chocolate merle, is what hides anything that could distinguish her from another. The long fur around her neck is thinner upon closer inspection, hiding a thick, ugly scar that covers a wide portion of her neck. It appears to be an old wound, one that has had years to heal, yet, instead, it was only during her second year of life that it was acquired. Behind the scarring is the truth, mangled tissues beyond repair and a void that will never reach another's ears. If she dared to speak, she would sound like a broken squeaky toy, and no words would be able to form.

The injury on her neck causes her to walk with her head down more than she should, as if shielding the sensitive scars from prying eyes or as if everyone was a threat to reopen old wounds. Her tail hangs low, and her eyes and ears are ever alert. She holds an aloof, distrusting air around her when in the presence of others, yet this seems to melt away completely when she believes she is alone or when accompanied by those she finds herself trusting most. A true act of trust on her part is standing beside someone with the front of her neck in view.

Personality

Skills: tracking, herding, reconnaissance, loyalty
Abilities: watchdog abilities, healing factor
Description:

Mari can come off as an insecure dog to start. Perhaps it's the way she carries herself... No, it's definitely the way she carries herself. With a lowered head and tucked tail, it's almost inviting others to believe she has confidence or trust issues. While this might be partially true, her biggest issue is simply keeping her neck safe. The distrust primarily comes from never knowing whether a stranger is a friend or foe, and the majority of her life was spent treating everything like an enemy if it go anywhere close to the herd or the house. This can make it hard for her to start off on a positive foot in any relationship since she does not even bother to hide this. Marionette's training as a herding dog requires great focus and observation skills. She can read body language better than some, and her ears are always listening in for the slightest fluctuations in tone. If it ever looks like she is silently judging you, she most definitely is.

Yet, to those with deeply rooted distrust in just about anyone, to actually earn her trust means to earn her loyalty. That is something that rarely wavers, even during the harshest of storms. Take a raise neck as a compliment because she will be too proud to get a robot to relay any sort of admiration your way. Her body language is probably the most important piece towards figuring out her personality, and that requires close observation and a lot of time. Subtle changes will occur when certain emotions flash through her, though most reactions you will get out of her to begin with will probably involve her Watcher in some way as she will try to remain guarded for as long as she can.

History

Lineage:
Father: Tusk | Augment | assumed alive
Mother: Doll | Basal (Lethal White) | deceased
Sibling(s): Harley | Augment | deceased
Unnamed | deceased
Unnamed | deceased

Background:

Her father was a dedicated herding dog, almost always out on the field, protecting the livestock. Yet her mother remained close to home, acting more as a guard dog the more obviously pregnant she became. They lived on a small farm, one possessed by Wastelanders who only wanted to make a living. Breeding their two dogs had been an 'accident' on their part, but they were excited to have more dogs to work the land. On one cold winter morning, their Basal went into labor, and many long hours later brought a full litter of healthy puppies into the world. At least, that is what they would like to say. Out of the four puppies delivered, only two of them made it past the first twenty-four hours.

The puppies stayed close to home their first couple of months, keeping glued to mother's side until they were mobile enough to begin getting into all kinds of trouble. Big brother Harley took the lead while little sister Marionette followed after, eager to keep up with her brother. Day after day, they were scolded by their mother, picked up by the scruffs of their necks by the woman of the household, and told not to do far too many things. The humans started their training young, staring first with mild sight training alongside their mother before moving onto the basics of herding. Marionette found that herding was very boring unless the livestock acted up, and she lived for the thrill of chasing down strays and guiding them back towards the group. Her brother enjoyed the hardest part of herding, however. He enjoyed frightening off intruders and actually protecting them.

You could say that the first two years of their life went smoothly. Long days were spent on the field, and there were times when they had to remain outside in harsh weather in order to keep the herd from trouble. Yet, all good things must come to an end. One day, there was a rogue mutant, something so far indescribable that she could only stare until she was snapped out of her thoughts by her father. It was easy enough to scare off with minor injuries that quickly healed before their master could notice the wounds. A few days later, there were two more mutants, back with a vengeance and ready to spill blood. The whole family was out that day, and their barks and growls attracted their human companions.

First went their mother. Then her brother fell. And then she.

Her vision swam as she tried to keep herself awake, knowing that she would never be able to properly heal if she passed out. She could hear the distance calls of her father, the gun shots that fired down upon the mutants, yet even that was muffled by the blood pounding in her ears as the nanobots were thrown into a frenzy trying to heal her. Without any nearby scrap metal, they worked to clot the blood to keep her bleeding out from the large gash on her neck. The day turned to night as the sounds around her silenced. She became more and more aware that the pain in her neck was subsiding, and most of the wound had almost entirely closed over. Yet, she was too exhausted to move or even try to call out for her father.

When she was certain that she would be safe to do so, she allowed the darkness to swallow her.

She woke up in an unfamiliar location where the sound of whirring reached her ears. Sitting up, she quickly inspected herself before her surroundings. She had been cleaned, something she knew for a fact that her nanobots could not accomplish. Her neck was healed on the outside, yet there was still a sharp pain within. Her surroundings, however, quickly gave away that she was not within the farmlands anymore. The building was not run down enough to have possibly been owned by a Wastelander, and the smell of the farm only lingered faintly on her own fur.

A small spherical machine floated down to her level, and her first instinct was to take a defensive position, drawing back her lips in an attempt to growl  at the robot. Yet, no sound escaped her throat, only a searing pain that threw her into a coughing fit. "You should rest more. Your vocal cords are no more." The voice probably startled her more than the appearance of the Watcher had. With her eyes glued on the robot, her stare was enough to prompt to to explain further. "The... attack: you almost died." She knew that. "So now you cannot speak." She figured as much. But why am I here?

"That would be creator's doing," while she should have  been startled by the invasion of her thoughts, her attention was drawn toward a sleeping figure in the back of the room, slumped over a desk. The robot filled her in on how he had been passing through when he noticed what he thought were three dead dogs and a single dead mutant. The other must have escaped. On further inspection, she had still been breathing. Assuming she had been left for dead, the human picked her up and brought her back to his dwelling. So, essentially, she had been abandoned and then picked up by a stranger.

As for the Watcher speaking to her? Their sync had been purely by chance upon her waking.

Marionette decided to stay with this human and his, as she found out, wide assortment of Watchers. He apparently had a habit of collecting the abandoned, and there were too many Watchers he found on his journeys. She found herself accidentally syncing with a few of the other Watchers he had around the place, though she decided that she enjoyed the company of the first she met much more than the others. This was probably because it could actually relay her thoughts for her, providing much needed social interaction. Though, the robot seemed to lack a proper translation program, and her thoughts were often lost in translation when she wanted the robot to help her communicate with the human. So, she turned to the usual canine antics of begging, tugging at his clothing, etc.

She soon found herself growing restless. Staying within the human's dwellings was fine and all, but she was bred to be outdoors, something that he seemed to refuse upon. He only allowed her outside to do her business. It was almost as if he was afraid of her leaving him, or perhaps he thought she might get attacked again. Maybe he just did not want her leaving with one of his Watchers, something she planned on doing from the start. Under the guise of needing to relieve herself, she took off with the small Watcher in tow the moment he turned his back to 'give her some privacy'.

"How reckless."

Yes, yes. She knew that, but she never looked back.

Accepted.