Ophie Panacea
Ophiuchus Panacea (a.k.a. Ophie)
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
As lithe as most others of her kind, Ophie uses raw agility to make up for an otherwise frail physique.
Body Features
Cloven hooves, Olive green and gold horn. Sapphire blue eyes. Flowing light brown mane.
Identifying Characteristics
Horn snapped, regrown through unknown means. Regrown horn is reminiscent of two snakes coiling around a stalk. (Not pictured)
Mental characteristics
Personal history
As a young kirin, Ophie endured a fairly rough upbringing as the daughter of two entrepreneurial kirin basing a new brewery on the outskirts of Scaletip. Her work was hard, and her hours were long, but she endured the hardship that accompanied a demanding new business that her parents had put so much effort into. They fancied themselves as the next big thing in kirin-based brews, believing that they had the recipe to revolutionize 'Kirin Special' as Astillon knew it. Ophie smiled through their self-aggrandizing tales. Whether it was true or not, it didn't make her chores any easier.
One day, a brutish-looking Earth Pony accompanying a small, yet fairly well-dressed kirin knocked on the front door of the brewery. Though Ophie was focusing on her work, she could understand that the conversation between them was growing tense and verbally aggressive. A short time later the front door slammed as the two left, leaving her father with a fairly lengthy stack of papers that looked really official. Ophie didn't engage her father, who was still shaking with pent up rage. Later that night she listened in on her parents, she could tell something was wrong, but she was just too young to understand what exactly was going on. Just a few days later, Ophie's work slowed to a halt. No more customers, no more orders, no more worries. She was happy for the first time in a long while. She opted to use her newfound free time to play with the other young kirin girls she would occasionally catch sight of outside of the brewery while she was working. A few days later, she found herself being swept up into a carriage that her parents had hastily crammed with everything they owned. Her father refused to explain, but made it clear that this was their last day in Scaletip. Their wagon traveled for what felt like weeks. Any time they stopped, Ophie wasn't allowed to go too far away. Her parents constantly looked nervous and were quick to ire. After a few run ins with their heightened temper, she was content to remain quiet and observe. As one of the long days of traveling wore on, she found herself becoming oddly sleepy as she sat in the back of the cart. The sun was still above the horizon, and there was plenty of daylight left to burn but... she felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier regardless. The last thing she saw before passing out was her father tumbling forward while dragging the cart she was in.
Ophie suddenly sensed her own being. She was aware, but not conscious; caught in a limbo of darkness and left alone with her own thoughts. Dreams and nightmares always felt real to her, but never this in-focus. Her mind was clear, but her body refused to move. It was a strange and terrifying feeling, but Ophie focused her mind to settle her nerves. Slowly, her senses began to pick up external signals. Talking, shouting, violence. She thought to shiver, though the impetus failed to reach her body. Words were unintelligible, but clearly hostile. She heard her father shouting now. An exchange of words, and her mother began to scream. Suddenly, she felt her body being moved. Her mother's voice sounded pleading, but grew fainter before the external world once again closed itself off to Ophie. Only one sound remained with her, one that was there the whole time, but was too quiet to differentiate from the others in the commotion. Jovial, cackling laughter that slowly grew louder as her mind felt heavier. A dull pain lashed across her forehead, though her body remained as still as ever as the laughter broke into several cacophonies of pitch.
'Don't laugh at me', she thought. In this time more than any other, she thought of nothing but cursing her own fate. She could put up with her parent's self-involvement. She could put up with her demanding responsibilities. She could even put up with her isolation, but she could not put up with where fate had abandoned her through no actions of her own, and without any means to fight it. She was helplessly trapped in her own mind, and that was enough to push her over the edge. She felt the dull throbbing of her forehead grow into a sharp pressured pain as she fought to do anything against the all-encompassing void. The laughter seemed drawn by her desperation, rejoining into one as the invisible source eventually found its way to her. Slowly it died down, becoming nothing more than a low chuckling. She could swear she felt something scaly for the briefest moment as the pain once again intensified, the pressure in her forehead built, feeling as though it were a river being held back by a dam. Whatever this entity was, she needed a liberator. Mentally, she reached out, seeking to make some kind of contact. Something foreign invaded her thoughts, flooding her with a slew of information she could neither comprehend or respond to. Images, languages she had never heard, recipes for bread pudding, launch codes, hearts and hooves cards, showtunes, and other off-the-wall concepts before it yanked back, thrusting her consciousness back into the waking world. Ophie screamed, but there was no time to take in what had transpired before her glowing horn shattered, releasing the pent up energy within. All was bathed in a wave of bright light and chaotic energy as the raw power forced itself from Ophie's horn stump, crackling and hissing before puttering and fizzling out as the last of it escaped.
Sore and dazed, Ophie took a second to catch her breath as her eyes refocused to the world around her. She didn't recognize her surroundings at all. Nothing was as it was when she fell asleep. She saw no sign of her parents, the cart, or anything else that would have suggested she was even in the same place as before. The air was cool and damp, where it was arid before. She looked behind her to see a vast sea stretch for miles. She came to realize she was in a completely different location entirely with no other living souls in sight. Something else was different though- herself. Where once she might have panicked in this situation, she felt a strange sense of calm satisfaction. She felt assured, and filled with conviction. The past and the future no longer mattered, she was lost to the moment, her moment of triumph. She raised a hoof towards her shattered horn stump, brushing across it, though completely shattered, she felt two small protrusions that seemed to be growing from the remaining stump. She gathered the strength to try to stand, stumbling oddly for a few strides before wondering down the unfamiliar shoreline.
Education
Educated from home as a foal in the art of brewmaking, along with basic skills essential to the craft such as mathematics and chemistry.
She glimpsed various topics and subjects when she was touched by the primal force she encountered, though most of this information was useless and fleeting, some of it occasionally pops back into her head when useful.
Employment
Bannermane in the city of Why
She seeks to fill in the gaps of her memory, and pay homage to the force of chaos she believes to be responsible for her survival.
Mental Trauma
Her traumatic experience with magic that affected her consciousness and ability to control her actions left her with a deep distaste and distrust for those who callously use mind-affecting magic.
