Starwish Sparkler

"The mares I used to be and could have become are in my past, so I leave them there, where they belong. The past does not determine who I am; it is what I do with my future that determines the kind of pony I will be tomorrow."

- Starwish Sparkler

Overview
Starwish Sparkler, or alternatively Second Chance is a young mare that had been enslaved the majority of her life. She arrived in Cliffside in June, 2281 a week after the Legion attacked her slave compound on the search for zebra slaves. The little mare has seen and experienced things that would change any pony for the rest of their life. It has changed her into another pony altogether, to the point she may as well have had her mind and soul changed bodies. Seventeen years of harsh treatment have left her meek and quiet, battling the restraints that still hold her mind as the slave she was. She lacks most social norms and bears large gaps within what most ponies take for granted in their upbringing - Normal socialization; this leaves her inept in most situations, finding even simple things such as jokes difficult. No ponies know what really goes through her mind, as this is not something she is accustomed to expressing to even her lovers. Though, ponies that mistake her social awkwardness and lack of educations while growing as being slow or even stupid will be in for a rather large surprise as her intelligence is very understated with her personality. Overall, Starwish lends herself to a very mild temperament and is polite and kind to a fault; though this kindness should not be taken for granted as under the gentle surface seethes a lifetime of unexpressed emotions.

Stats
Level: 23

Outstanding abilities or skills:

 * Weak Levitation: Basic pony unicorn spell. Starwish had lost all hope and all will, her magic was completely lost to her as she had nothing - Not even the knowledge of being a pony via total deponification (See: dehumanization) for the majority of her life. Regaining access to her magic, she has grasped the most basic of unicorn spells. She may lift upwards of 15-25 lbs (6.8kg – 11.3kg)


 * Reading: An uncommon trait in wastelanders, she was taught to read by Northern Charge at her behest. Since learning, she has amassed a small collection of books, mostly service/repair manuals, some novels and even a copy of the Pony Sutra. Her book collection is her pride and joy, but don’t be afraid to ask her for a book, if selflessness was a skill, she would be overpowered in it.


 * Repair/Upkeep/Fabrication: Starwish has studied and tinkered endless hours in pursuit of honing one of her new passions, machinery! She quietly observes the world around her, the machines getting special attention; watching each part in function. Through her diligence, she has acquired the ability to repair and in some cases fabricate pure machinery. Creating objects takes time, concentration and supplies; she cannot create when one of the three is missing.


 * Arcane Technology: Her second passion, all the wires, pathways, components and everything! All the elements of anything technological working, dancing and performing their art in harmony is one of this pony’s joys. She can repair broken technology when presented, granted there are enough parts left to work with.In a pinch, Starwish can use various skills to jury rig an item into function, usually just enough to see it through when it needs to. While it is uncommon, she is granted the ability to repair higher grades of technology, highest ability shown: heavy repair upon androids as well as installing a repair talisman into one. Fabrication of things of this nature are extremely difficult and would require her to attempt multiple times.



Outstanding weaknesses and physical deficiencies:

 * Haunting past: Starwish has a past which dictates her actions and weighs on her heart and mind. It has caused her to act in a somewhat strange manner and she is prone to psychological blocks and breaks about certain things.


 * Immunity to pain: Starwish's strongest weaknesses, it has led to her injuries to compounding into larger and life threatening instances (Such as severe cuts being allowed to bleed out until she had become anemic). This is in no way a boon or positive ability, caused by her life as a slave - Notably her cutie mark removal and lack of healing thereof.


 * Reduced vision: She is 80-90% blind in one eye, the other having nearsightedness (Can only see things clearly up close). She gains +2 to perception while wearing glasses, but suffers -2 when they are not worn.


 * Tripod: Starwish has lost a leg and requires an artificial limb. It in no way augments or boosts her ability, in fact, the false limb is prone to malfunction, jamming, power failure, shorts, creates noise (If she ever needs to sneak). (Without her false leg, -2AGI, with CURRENT false leg, only -1 at current model and time of writing this)

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and Skills
Strength: 4 Perception: 4 (5 with glasses, 3 without) Endurance: 6 Charisma: 8 Intelligence: 9 Agility: 4 (2 without false leg, 3 with) Luck: 5

Barter: 62 Energy Weapons: 58 Explosives: 29 Guns: 58 Lock pick: 64 Medicine: 26 Melee Weapons: 17 Repair: 92 Science: 94 Sneak: 23 Speech: 76 Survival: 40 Unarmed: 9 Magic: 54

Perks and Traits

 * (Level 2) Cherchez La Femme: +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters.
 * (Level 4) Educated: You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level.
 * (Level 6) Comprehension: You gain one additional skill point for reading books and double the skill points for reading magazines.
 * (Level 8) Swift Learner: You gain an additional 10% whenever experience points are earned.
 * (Level 10) Ferocious Loyalty: When you drop below 50% HP, companions gain DT.
 * (Level 12) Nerd Rage!: +15 DT and Strength increased to 10 whenever health is 20% or lower
 * (Level 14) Math Wrath: You are able to optimize your Pip-Boy's V.A.T.S. logic, reducing all AP costs by 10 percent.
 * (Level 16) Jury Rigging: Repair any item using a roughly similar item.
 * (Level 18) Computer Whiz: Can hack a locked down terminal with four more chances.
 * (Level 20) Robotics Expert: +25% damage to robots, can shut down robots by sneaking up on them.
 * (Level 22) Pack Rat: You are efficient at arranging your inventory in general. This makes it much easier to carry that little extra you've always needed.


 * Four Eyes: +1 Perception while glasses are worn, -1 while not wearing any glasses.
 * Good Natured: Increases Speech, Medicine, Repair,Science and Barter skills +5. Decreases Energy Weapons,Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons and Unarmed skills -5. (Possible to be changed at a later date)
 * Wild Wasteland: Adds additional 'wacky' content and modifies existing content and special encounters (Innate Trait for all Wasted Days players)

Unique Inventory
"That Gun" - A heavily modified .233 caliber pistol which Chance purchased from Shot Trotters. It was modified (To some's horror and apprehension) to fire 5.56mm rounds, the cylinder and crane were motorized for quicker firing and reloading than a typical revolver. It can fire 5 rounds before reload, and may fire armor piercing rounds. A Frankenstein monster of a weapon, it piqued Starwish's curiosity quickly, the modifications and additions something she wished to own. Little did she know, she bought a weapon far outside her comfort range of power.... (Based on the weapon from Fallout: New Vegas, "That Gun")

The M-2081 is a revolver type plasma pistol

Starwish’s "magic bit": An strange item which has been enchanted by ponies of the past. More than likely a marital aid for the multitude of mare couples pre-war... Information regarding this item is enclosed separately upon request.

Starwish’s artificial limb: In its current state, her leg is rather heavy and is not the fastest, but it is durable. Her first attempt at prosthetics, she used the remains of her leg for rough ideas toward the concept of her prosthetic. Drawing on what she has seen from similar applications for robotic legs as well, she opted for direct power to the joints, installing the actuators inside the joint, protecting them from dirt and other contaminates. It is built primarily from the decommissioned remains of a sentry bot located inside Shot Trotters. (Soon to be updated)

Memory orb: Starwish owns a memory orb containing a mixture of memories from her lifetime - Primarily her younger years, before she was a slave. In it contains the last times she saw her family alive as well as where she grew up to the age of nine. It was created by Xephyna to extract her original name and cutie mark from the long buried memories. Her conditioning and brainwashing was severe enough that this was the only way to access these memories and her own information before she had become a slave.

Custom Pip-Buck: Through her time in Cliffside after she learned to read, Starwish has been applying her thirst for knowledge in things that interested her. The first manual she owned was the Pip-Buck repair bible where she learned the groundwork of her trade. Through this time, Starwish has honed her craft in repair and modification of various Pip-Buck models which resulted in her customized Pip-Buck. Using parts from the various models that are in this repair bible, she pieced together a her own unit which has the traits she enjoyed from each. It is primarily able to do the same functions as a typical Pip-Buck with added diagnostic capabilities of a Pip-Buck repair tech's (With cable), extended storage space, increased self-medical diagnostics (It has become how she 'feels' or detects pain). Overall, the Pip-Buck is much more fragile due the nature of how it is assembled without a proper protective case.

Appearance
Short and gray, she never had a chance to grow to a full sized mare due to her life as a slave. Starwish's body is covered in numerous scars from the various things she had to endure. Her mane and tail are a sandy brown, usually kept neat and tidy as she is able, happy to be able to control her appearance and allow herself to, in her mind, look presentable. She wears glasses that are somewhat near what would be prescribed to her, allowing her to see better than she would otherwise. Her eyes are a deep pink, as her magic color is, though it is rare for her to open her eyes beyond a slightly baleful expression, showing what she feels is rather difficult.

Pre-Cliffside Biography
Starwish was born in 2255 to her parents within a modest and small community. She had an older sister who cared and protected her, loving parents that would nurture and support her no matter what she chose to become or do. Starwish had an ideal life, or the best one can have within the wasteland. When she was nine, she finally found her talent, her cutie mark surfacing. However, before the next night Star/Chance would find herself as a slave. Slavers attacked her small hometown, her father killed in defense of his family. Her mother, sister and any surviving pony within the town was taken to the raider camp for processing into slavery. Attempting to have her foals spared from the horrors of what the life of a slave held, her mother attacked their group's 'guard'. The rebellion was started and ended near instantly as she was shot in the stomach, subdued and her throat slit. The foals were allowed to cling to the quickly cooling corpse of their mother until it was their own time to be processed. drug away, Chance never saw her sister again from that point on. Her newly acquired cutie mark were branded over and mangled by the iron made for larger and older ponies. She was now property of her first master, who owned her almost 16 years. A steady diet of harsh treatment, constant sexual abuse and deponification warped her mind into believing she was not even a pony, she wasn't worthy of any nicety that life afforded. The fact her and the rest of the other slaves had cutie marks was an abomination, it was a mistake, so they were taken.

Throughout her time within this life, her magic dwindled with her spirit, her will - It did not take but years to extinguish her very spirit, the spark that lit her magic faltering and dieing. From her ‘encounters’ where she taken freely by her handlers, Chance had her first pregnancy. With the conditions she lived in, her body was able to hold what would be her first foal for only 60% of the term. Her lifestyle wasn’t compatible with such a small mare. Within months of the sixteen year mark of her being a slave, there was an attack from a group of slaving raiders who stormed the compound. Most of her captors were killed as were many of the slaves. Her first master was killed in the attack, becoming ‘dead-master’ to her. The second was a much more cruel owner, punishing the slaves for any amount of divergence of command or the behavior wished. Chance was a favorite, bowing and obeying within the most of her capacity. Thankfully her occupation under her second master didn’t require magic in any form.

The last year in captivity were her most brutal, collecting most of her scars, including her ‘cutie scars’. She acquired these when the raider-owner had grown tired of seeing the branding of her previous master which he took pleasure in carving and flaying away from her flanks. Affording no healing to this she nearly perished from infection and constant loss of blood from the wound’s healing/opening frequency. Her second owner had used and pressed that she wasn’t able to tell her proper age to enforce the false age. Due to her small size and stature, she was easily passed off as 17-18 or sometimes younger to fetch a better price for her ‘services’, after all, a younger mare would be more desirable than one of her actual age; thus she fetched a higher price. This is when she became pregnant a second time in her life, this one lasting a much shorter span of time - she only was able to feel the initial effects and her stomach start to swell before her body rejected the fetus due to the flayed portions of her flanks causing bodily distress and the other abuses she suffered.

Stresses and new scars added to the little mare before one of her customers had took it on himself to break her horn off since she ‘wasn’t using it anyway’. She cried out and lashed out in a (Rather pathetic) buck to the stallion, who hadn’t paid for mutilating her and refused to after the fact. She was punished for attacking the customer for any reason, being jammed into a confining cage with a dying slave under the compound which remained mostly unlit. She was in this punishment with her now perished cell mate for days when the legion attacked her compound, looking and tearing it apart to find any and all zebra slaves.

After the attack was over, neither raider group had what would be called a victory, both sides dead or dieing with only a small handful of slaves surviving. Most of the slaves which survived followed what was commanded of them by the master, staying at his side. Through the circumstances of the ‘near isolation’ punishment took place being unlit, the attackers mistook both within the cage to be deceased. Considering both inhabitants of Chance’s cage dead, it was left unlocked. Frozen with fear and apprehension, Chance lie with the corpse of her cell mate until hours after the sounds of war had stopped. Crawling out of the lower level and seeing the carnage that was wrought outside, she was filled with panic, years of her life colliding with her in a moment...

The usually obedient slave fled. She didn’t have a lot of energy in her reserve after her confinement and starvation, not getting too far before she had to slow down, her mind racing, flooding with the thoughts that she was free... And how horrible this was. She was going to be punished severely, she swore... Turning back was no option... She found herself lost, anyhow, the mare never leaving the slave compound on her own. After a short time wandering, she came across the rotting body of a pony wearing shredded armor and after some deliberation, she took the shreds of combat armor as her own and wore them. Chance wandered the wastes for days alone and barely alive until she found Psychoshy’s clinic, collapsing behind it for a rest when she was found by one of the locals...

Bonus information and Trivia

 * Has a blood type of O-. (She can give blood to anyone, but cannot receive from any other than other O-type. A fitting match for the mare who would give what she had to help another but has issue taking help.)
 * Has performed cannibalism twice in her lifetime for purely survival purposes.
 * Has a moderate addiction to Sparkle Cola. Her quarters contain a Sparkle Cola vendor.
 * While she was a slave, Starwish was never required to wear a bomb or shock collar.
 * Her false leg is made primarily of parts from a decommissioned sentry-bot.
 * Starwish's library includes a copy of the Pony Sutra
 * On the topic: Starwish's sexuality, strongly preferring other mares, is not involved with the same innate trait others of the same sexuality. Hers comes from a lifetime of stallion abuse and use as a slave. i.e., being with a stallion is actually frightening to her.
 * Starwish believed she was able to meet the princesses when she had arrived in Cliffside. The revelation that Canterlot was a demolished hellhole and that the princesses were dead was a crushing thing; they sounded very nice to her.

Personality Type

 * Jung Personality type: ISFJ
 * Keirsey type: Protector

Tropes
These all link to the respective trope pages with descriptions.


 * Mama Bear
 * Made a Slave
 * Sex Slave
 * The Woobie
 * Covered with Scars
 * Scar Survey
 * Dark and Troubled Past
 * Slave Brand
 * Distinguishing Mark
 * Physical Scars, Psychological Scars
 * Mrs. Fix It
 * Wrench Wench
 * Unkempt beauty
 * When She Smiles
 * Darkest Hour
 * Meaningful Name
 * Feel No Pain
 * Broken Angel
 * Kindly Housekeeper
 * She Cleans Up Nicely
 * Letting Her Hair Down
 * Identity Amnesia
 * Conditioned to Accept Horror
 * Overshadowed by Awesome
 * Parental Substitute
 * Break the Cutie
 * Raised by Orcs
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
 * Revolvers Are Just Better
 * Artificial Limbs
 * Meganekko