Althea Dornseif

Althea Dornseif is a player character played by Hotelkilo.

Althea Dornseif
Species & Gender:	Human Female
Year of Birth:	YE 26
Organization:	Nepleslian Space Marine Corps
Occupation:	General Infantry
Rank:	Private First Class
Current Placement:	NSS Inquiry

Althea is 5'7“, 170 pounds. Most of her weight is tied up in muscle mass; she's been working out since her early teens, in the gym and on the streets, learning to keep fighting fit to survive the mean streets and walkways of Funky City. It would be difficult to argue that she's in better condition then the average recruit, but it is an argument Althea's willing to make. Despite that, she does have rather wide-hips and a heart shaped face, distinguished by nasty looking scratches across her lower jaw. In addition to her natural features, she's added a few straight-forward cybernetic replacements. One eye, the left, is cybernetic, as are both hands and part of her lower right arm.

Althea has indifferently pale skin, little used to natural light even after joining the Marine Corps. Her hair is golden blonde, short, and trimmed close around her ears. Her eyes have gray-green stock lenses, almost like a security camera. The only other particularly distinguishing mark is her blood type, B+, tattooed on the back of her neck.

Not unusual for Nepleslia, Althea is a hard character for someone as young as she is. Raised in the demanding kill-or-be-killed atmosphere of one of the most run-down blocs of Argent Towers, the girl has shown difficulty connecting with others outside her group. Since joining the NSMC, this has been less of a problem, since the rough and tumble camaraderie of most Marine units suits her fine. While willing and able to bond with fellow Marines, she regards most Naval personnel and Military Police with a level of suspicion.

At the best of times she's an intense young woman, focused at whatever task she's been given to the point of concern, considering the difficulty of derailing her. This doesn't stem from a lack of intelligence, as the entrance testing determined, or a lack of initiative. Rather, as a previous Sergeant supposed, from an intense desire to please her superiors and avoid rejection.

Althea Dornseif was born in YE 26 in Funky City, Nepleslia, specifically in some of the poorest parts of Argent Towers. The exact date and location of her birth are somewhat nebulous. To her, at least, so are her parents. Roger Devereux, her deceased father, was a petty leg-breaker for a Red gang that was executed during a gang war in YE 28. Betsy Mercado, her mother, initially raised her along with an elder son, Althea's older brother, Claude. Also in YE 28 Betsy suffered a fatal heart attack as the result of an overdose of an unidentified street drug. Claude was taken in by an Aunt and year-and-a-half old Althea was made a ward of the state.

Miserable from a young age, Althea quickly learned that the only way to get ahead was to have something you were good at. Uninterested in slaving away for the Bigs and Elites in a factory, or most of the other alternatives available to girls. Instead, she started cracking skulls with the best of them, when at age eleven she broke four ribs of a plainclothes cop sent to take her back to the state home. From then on she lived on the streets, or in abandoned apartments, basements, and eventually gang pads.

She knew that every gangster started somewhere at the bottom, so to pay for gym time (and shower access), she was a runner and drug courier through her adolescence. When she was old enough, and tough enough, Althea started breaking skulls, limbs, etc. for the Duquesne Tower Killers. It was then that she learned how to handle a gun, what parts of humans were most vulnerable to the application of force. And the limits of the human body. When she was fifteen, a rival gang drugged her, and was in the process of cutting off her hands to send them to her boss when Althea woke up. Turns out one of her limitations didn't include not using her shattered lower arm bones as daggers. It did mean that there wasn't anything to do to repair them, within her price range, and she nearly bled to death before being dragged to a back-alley doctor by a friend.

Since this lesson failed to sink in, life decided she needed another one. A few months later, practically fresh out of the hospital, she got into a fight with another streeter jacked-up on hallucinogens. The woman was berserk, going straight for the unsuspecting Althea's eyes, from behind. She managed to do enough damage before having her face ground off against the pavement that Althea had to use the last bit of her savings for replacement eyes cobbled together by a street cyberneticist. This period of reflection happened to coincide with an NSMC deployment to assist the National Police Force with containing a major street war.

The realization of just how small her world had been, a few dozen blocks, and how powerless even the top-dogs on the street were against power armor and gunships hit her hard. Enlistment was really the most rational choice, if she wanted to be part of the baddest gang going. With a few months to go before turning eighteen she closed out her business, settling accounts in the Towers before showing up as clean as she had been in, ever, to the recruiting station.

Already partially cybernetic and with enough noticeable scars, Althea was a popular target for Drill Instructors used to breaking down hardcases to remold into Marines. Oddly, though, the girl wasn't defiant, or smug, or really anything like most recruits that 'totally didn't come from a gang'. She was a little sullen, but as demanding of herself as they seemed to be once learning what standards were expected from the Instructor staff. Not an honor graduate, too many points off from early locker inspections, she nevertheless advanced to Power Armor training, then on to the NSMC's 115th Infantry Regiment.

Employed in fighting in the colonies. She'd made Private Second Class when the NSMC reshuffled ranks, making the jump to PFC in the process. She has been ordered to join the Marine complement of the NSS Inquiry.

Althea Dornseif has the following notable skills:

• NSMC Standard Infantry Skills plus…
• Street Fighting
• Drinking games
• Small unit leadership (shows promise)
• Chibi-Nekovalkyrja tossing

• Claude Mercado (Brother)

Althea Dornseif has the Nepleslian Standard Issue Equipment

In the case hotelkilo becomes inactive:

• Can this character be used as an NPC by a GM or FM? YES
• Can this character be adopted after I've been gone for a year? No