| Vanya Carena | |
|---|---|
| |
| Nicknames | V Hotlips Spala Stupid Girl |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Elf |
| Affiliations | Spearbreakers Parasol |
| Occupations | Skulker Sleeper Agent |
| Kin | Salaia Carena, sister |
| Birth | Moonstone of 188 |
| “ | All I ever do is run, leaving everything I know and love behind me. | ” |
— Vanya Carena
| ||
Vanya Carena is an elven-born skulker living in Spearbreakers, and the main character of the Spearbreakers novels. Her story is told through a series of journal entries that she keeps when she has the resources. She has been known to steal or craft her own journals, as in the case with the one she created from cavy posters.
She was born in the year 188, making her roughly 12 years old at the founding of Spearbreakers, and although imprisoned in a makeshift cell for nearly a year she remained loyal to the fortress and its people, even after fleeing into a self-imposed exile. Later she returned, teaching them about the Timewar and rallying them against Ballpoint. While at one time she served as an assistant to Mr Frog, during the final battle she and he worked together to take Joseph down.
Appearance[]
Vanya is slender, and slightly taller than the average dwarf, being about 4' 8" tall, and weighing about 90 pounds. This is also slightly shorter than the average elf. She has pale skin, much like most elves, and large gray-green eyes. Her hair is an off-red chestnut. She has a slightly rounded face and a pointed chin, and a nose she's self-conscious of because she feels it's a little larger than it ought to be. Her mouth is small, however, relative to those of other species. She bears no tattoos or markings of any kind.
Personality[]
Vanya's personality has changed somewhat due to her experiences. She was originally incredibly shy, due to being an elf - she learned to avoid people to keep them from figuring out her species. Even now she tends to keep to herself, and doesn't go out of her way to make friends. For a long time, she refused to let her name be known, instead going by the moniker "V". Although she is quick to help someone in need, she prefers to keep to herself most of the time, staying in the shadows or out of sight. She has a problem with confidence, but this has very slowly changed during her adventures.
There are a number of fears, or phobias, that she has - some of these are stronger than others. She is afraid of having her hair cut due to an abusive experience she had with her grandfather when she was younger, when he tried to snip the points off her ears. She has a mild case of claustrophobia - a fear of small places. This mild case isn't strong enough to interfere with her living underground, but comes out when she needs to fit herself into small places such as a compartment or vent shaft. It is unknown where exactly it comes from.
Vanya has an inner need to feel loved, stemming from her childhood. She often looks at her friends as family members, even if a normal person wouldn't see the similarities. She also has an inner need to care for someone. For a long time, this was aimed at her younger sister, Salaia Carena. Eventually this shifted to her friend, Katalina Okablokum.
Vanya doesn't mind breaking the rules to accomplish goals, which occasionally lands her in trouble, and she doesn't particularly respect higher authorities. Despite this, she has strong moral values, and it would be difficult to force her to do something she felt was "wrong". She is a peaceful girl at heart, preferring to settle things without violence whenever possible, although she won't shy away if forced to result to violence. She has never knowingly killed anyone by her own hand, and is against the usage of guns entirely, seeing them as tools to rob someone of their life without giving them a chance.
While she is normally quiet and unassertive, it's possible to make her angry, and when she is she has a very sharp tongue. She gets upset or emotional easily, and although she's gradually overcome this, it still doesn't take an extraordinary amount to bring her to tears. She isn't quite a hopeless romantic, but she's romantic enough to dream of being close to someone of the opposite gender. This isn't to say that she dreams of a sexual relationship, however, as she's a very modest person, and as of yet still a virgin.
Her elven heritage is something she's ashamed of, and unlike her sister, who fought to overcome the image, Vanya prefers to hide it and avoid thinking about it. While she may eventually overcome this as well, it is uncertain when or how this will come to pass.
Early life[]
Vanya was born in Moonstone of 188, though she never knew her exact birth day or month. Her parents, traveling with an elven caravan, left her on the doorstep of an elderly dwarven couple at the mountain hall, Tathurkeskal, in the Spring of 192, as well as her newborn baby sister, Salaia. Her "grandmother" tried to teach her to embrace her elven heritage as she grew older, but unfortunately, her grandfather had more control over the direction of her thoughts. Vanya was terrified of him, and he loathed elves with a passion.
Vanya's life was simple. She shared a bed with Salaia in the guest room of their foster parents' tiny apartment, and they grew close. Though they were afraid of being seen in public due to the typical dwarven-elven hatred and prejudice, they were tutored by their grandmother, and spent many hours at home or in the abandoned barracks they discovered together. Vanya spent many hours with her nose in books, and aspired to someday become a writer.
Salaia, raised completely by dwarves, soon developed many dwarven tendencies that Vanya herself couldn't quite grasp, like a desire to serve in the military, and a hatred of her own kind. Vanya herself was merely ashamed of them, largely due to the treatment her adoptive grandfather bestowed upon her. He was abusive and hateful, and through spite tried to drive Vanya and her sister apart with whatever means he could, but his wife, Vanya's adoptive grandmother, kept him in check. When she died in the year 197, when Vanya was eight, her grandfather became ever more abusive, eventually driving Vanya to run away in the year 199, when she was ten. She took Salaia, then seven, with her, and they traveled with caravans as skulkers. Over the course of the next few years, they journeyed between a couple different unnamed fortresses, staying at each as long as they could before they were inevitably kicked out.
Arrival at Spearbreakers[]
Vanya was 13 when in Opal of 201, at the end of Talvi's reign, she and her sister arrived at Spearbreakers with an unmarked caravan. Like her, it went largely unnoticed and was hardly considered worth mentioning, especially by Talvi's damaged mind. She took up residence among the fortress's abundant skulker population, but stayed apart from the others in an attempt to keep them from discovering the race of her and her sister. She managed to stay here longer than in any of the other fortresses, and she began to grow hopeful that eventually she'd be able to start up a life for herself, providing for her sister legitimately through manual labor instead of stealing from the Dining Hall. She was homeless throughout this time, owning hardly more than a bedroll, her clothes, and a beanie, though she often wished for something she could write in.
Discovery by Wari[]
Close to a year after she arrived at Spearbreakers, a nurse/Parasol agent, Wari, discovered her hiding outside the Spearbreakers hospital in the middle of the night and quickly discovered that they were elves. Vanya was afraid that it would ruin the wonderful life she'd been trying to set up for Salaia, and the desperate 14-year-old girl begged the nurse to take her instead of her sister. It pulled on Wari's heartstrings due to her experiences, and while she agreed to only take Vanya, her intentions were different than turning her in.
Wari took Vanya through Mr Frog's portal to Parasol, where she was converted to a Sleeper Agent. Parasol removed certain memories about her grandmother, implanted skills, implanted the the Sleeper technology, and gave her a special bracelet to keep her altered mind from reverting to where it had before. After this was done, Wari returned Vanya to her sister on the same night. It wasn't Wari's intention for Parasol to ever activate Vanya's sleeper state - only for her to be capable of defending her sister.
Manipulation by Joseph[]
A large portion of the next year passed quietly, until Joseph activated Vanya's sleeper state to serve his own purposes, keeping the incidents out of the Parasol records. Due to what being a Sleeper Agent entails, Vanya completely forgot everything that happened while she under its influence, even though she massacred large numbers of incognito Ballpoint troops that were trying to work their way into Spearbreakers' infrastructure. Joseph did it carelessly, with no regard for Vanya's safety, and it attracted Ballpoint's attention. Ballpoint responded by setting their agents on high alert status, telling them to sniff out anything unusual. Thus, it wasn't long before Dr. Kannan discovered Vanya and Salaia, and the fact that they were elves. Seeking a transfer, he informed his superiors of their existence. These superiors, unaware that it had been Joseph that had killed their agents, and not Parasol, decided on a course of action.
A small squad of soldiers led by Ballpoint Commander Raza (and including Private Jensky) entered Spearbreakers under the cover of night. Awakening the sleeping sisters, they captured them and forced them towards Mr Frog's temporarily vacant room, sending them through the portal to Parasol. In the meantime, Ballpoint was making a diversionary attack on Parasol on a different front. Raza led his crew through an underground Parasol complex to the same room Vanya had become a Sleeper Agent in. Taking Salaia first, Vanya was forced to watch as Doctor Kannan wiped Salaia's mind of any memories of her, instilling the 11-year-old girl's mind with memories of a Ballpoint spy and giving her a copy of Vanya's bracelet. Following this, Vanya was put in the same chair. She swore she would never forget her sister, and those were the last thoughts on her mind as she slipped from consciousness. Later that night Ballpoint re-deposited her at Spearbreakers with Parasol none the wiser. Vanya's Sleeper Agent abilities and skills had all been covered over, as well as any direct memories of Salaia.
Soon afterwards, Wari discovered that Vanya Carena was alone in the hallways outside the hospital. As the labs that Ballpoint had broken into were under her supervision, she knew part of the story and was able to piece together what happened, but neglected to disclose the information to Parasol in order to protect Vanya. Through an idle, eavesdropped conversation with another doctor, she was able to work it into Vanya's mind that Salaia had died under Dr. Kannan's care.
She didn't have anyone to protect anymore, and drifted about without a purpose, soon becoming close friends with Talvi over the following year and a half. Her mind wiped of any events related to the Timewar, she knew nothing of it, and was depressed for much of the time. She tried to keep her chin up through the worst of it, even when hungry and sick, abandoned by all, and it was both a blessing and a curse what happened the following year.
Adventures with Talvi[]
Due to Mr Frog's brand of hospitality (a blow to the head and an amnesiac), Talvi found herself in the Spearbreakers hospital under the care of Dr. Kannan. When she started waking up, Dr. Kannan tried to sedate her, and Vanya happened to be watching through a crack in the wall. Raising her voice, she called out that Talvi was awake, bringing a rush of administrative dwarves to the hospital, including Splint and Mr Frog. Talvi was promptly released, and went to Splint to tell her what Mr Frog had done to her. Vanya followed and eavesdropped on the conversation, but not without attracting Talvi's attention. She did, however, hear the first news of someone named Joseph, someone who would later become Vanya's archenemy.
Talvi acquired a promise of Vanya's assistance, and eventually gave her an envelope she was supposed to deliver to Splint if anything unfortunate happened to her. Later, they managed to sneak into Mr Frog's laboratory and uncover a grave of cavy skeletons, where Mr Frog had used them as test subjects. Talvi was distraught, but not as distraught as Vanya herself when she discovered she'd left her bracelet in Mr Frog's laboratory. She later attempted to retrieve it, and it ended with her fleeing for her life, and Mr Frog calling out that he would find her.
Because of the disappearance of a blueprint from his room, Mr Frog assumed that Vanya herself was of Ballpoint origin, and in fact a spy. The craftmanship of her bracelet pointed towards an elven ethnicity, and he decided to take advantage of these facts. He told Splint that Vanya was an elven spy, being careful not to reveal the secrets of the Timewar to Splint, who was a native of Everoc.
Later, Vanya followed him to the dining hall and listened in as Mr Frog and Splint agreed to put an end to Talvi's life, and her own, if they continued being a danger to the existence of the fortress. Vanya made up her mind to get her bracelet back, one way or another, and traveled through a series of tunnels Talvi had shown her to Mr Frog's laboratory, arming herself with two vampiric daggers from the Vampiric Wars - daggers Stova had claimed as loot, but Talvi had put in a chest in her own room. When she arrived at the entrance to Mr Frog's laboratory, she managed to catch the tail end of a conversation between Mr Frog and Joseph (on a PEA), wherein Joseph promised Mr Frog an amnesiac that would work on Talvi's unique genetic structure.
After Mr Frog left, Vanya emerged from the tunnels and began searching for her bracelet. It wasn't long before the PEA began to ring, and curiously, Vanya went over and tapped the screen, unknowingly accepting an incoming call from Joseph. As he'd worked with her before, he knew how to manipulate her, and taunted her to scare her and keep her from running away until Mr Frog returned. Mr Frog soon did, and Joseph skillfully ended the call on his ends seconds before the door opened. Seeing Vanya in his room, and believing her to be a Ballpoint spy, Mr Frog removed a prototype chainsword, from the wall with the intention of killing her. She was almost slain at the start, but Mr Frog inadvertently mentioned Vanya's sister, which made her feel protective and defensive. Although Ballpoint's treatment had still covered over the combat training Wari had instilled, Vanya was able to hold her own against Mr Frog's military inexperience until Mr Frog switched to wielding a sawpike. Vanya would have been doomed to die, but Talvi arrived wielding an ax just in time, determined to kill Mr Frog to keep him from, in her mind, destroying the fortress. She believed him to be in league with Joseph, and a threat to Spearbreakers' well-being. The battle between Mr Frog and Talvi was by no means brief, with Mr Frog drawing on his intelligence and dexterity, and with Talvi drawing on her skill and brute strength. Talvi was about to strike the killing blow when Vanya snatched the amnesiac syringes Joseph had provided from a table, plunging one into Talvi's arm, simply because she couldn't stand to see anyone die - not even her enemy, Mr Frog. She fled the room in tears, although she'd saved both of their lives.
Incarceration[]
A page of HARD's journal containing Vanya's sketches, drawn during her incarceration.
Vanya found herself in The Courtyard soon after the above events, and was nearly slain by a recently-turned Holistic Spawn. The military liason, Urist, saved her life, and she in turn saved his, though she wasn't sure he even noticed her. Before she had a chance to talk to him, Iohanne arrived and led Urist away as in a trance, with an exhausted Mr Frog following in close pursuit. Vanya's crush had begun several days before, but on being so close to him and making direct eye contact, it deepened. It was the first time Vanya had ever truly allowed herself to crush on someone.
Upon opening the envelope Talvi had given her, Vanya found specific instructions from the former overseer, requesting her to inform Splint of the dangers that Joseph posed to the fortress. She also found an item that she believed to be a key - an Identity Drive. However, she did not immediately follow these instructions, instead trying to get into Mr Frog's laboratory to find her bracelet. This soon led to her witnessing a second "Vanya Carena", and elf, talking to Joseph on a PEA in his room (at this time, Vanya didn't remember her last name). After Carena left, Vanya searched for her bracelet unsuccessfully, and then went to Splint's office, hoping that he would give her the bracelet back in return for her assistance. It had an addictive, drug-like effect on her mind, and she wanted it back desperately, even if she didn't fully know why. Unfortunately for her, her trip to Splint's office landed her behind bars in a Spawn Isolation Cell, and she remained there for a year, with nothing keeping her company but a journal and a spider on the wall.
Early on, Mr Frog's clone (Joseph cloned him soon after the battle with Talvi) visited Vanya in her cell, giving her a glass of strawberry wine that had been laced with a memory-enhancing truth serum he'd concocted. She revealed many things about her past to him - and herself - discovering in the process that she had absolutely no memories of her sister, and couldn't even remember her sister's name. When Mr Frog finally ceased his interrogations, Vanya was depressed and distraught beyond words, even though the biochemist was satisfied that Vanya didn't actually belong to Parasol. What he didn't realize was that the bracelet's effects hadn't fully worn off yet, and that Vanya was missing her memories of Parasol and Ballpoint.
Over the course of that year, the effect the bracelet had on Vanya's mind began to wear away, until she was almost free of its effects. However, Ballpoint's rewriting of her mind had in effect cemented the mental reconditioning Wari had administered, and while the memories Ballpoint had removed began to return, so did her combat abilities, though she had no knowledge of it at the time.
During this time, she recovered the memory of Wari taking her to Parasol to recondition her mind as a Sleeper Agent, which included watching a technician repair a piece of computer equipment. Vanya wondered if perhaps her bracelet had contained something similar, as she now knew it wasn't a family keepsake, but a piece of equipment in itself.
Urist's rescuing of Vanya[]
After Vanya turned 18, Urist happened to visit her in her prison cell, and immediately remembered who she was. He told her to pack her things, and that he'd be back soon. He believed he owed her a debt of honor, due to how she had saved his life. Vanya was more interested in the romantic aspect of the situation, and was disappointed when she found that Urist planned to escort her no farther than the fortress borders. However, his plans went awry, as Terrahex informed Splint that their prisoner had escaped. As the Spearbreakers soldiers flooded the upper levels, the two turned and headed for the lower areas of the fortress. Along the way they met Hans, a miner. After a brief fistfight due to a misunderstanding, Hans agreed to help Vanya escape, leading them downwards towards the tunnel trap. Splint had commissioned. Hans told Urist and Vanya to run, and pulled the lever. The ceiling collapsed behind them, and they barely managed to escape with their lives.
They would have been forever lost in the caverns beneath Spearbreakers had Urist's Crystal Jade Spearhead not begun to glow. Armok was showing them the way out, and with its help, they made their way to the old malachite vein where Hans had instructed them to wait. A couple hours later, Hans arrived, and by this time Urist and Vanya were beginning to form a friendship.
The bracelet had lost its effect on Vanya's mind, and she no longer felt the old desperate need to repossess the item. She decided the best way to prove to Mr Frog once and for all that she wasn't a spy, or a threat to the fortress, would be to destroy it in front of him.
Hans led them up old mining paths to the fortress's residential levels, tunneling his way into an abandoned entrance. When Fischer's group attempted to capture them, Hans and Urist sacrificed themselves in order to help Vanya escape. Soon afterwards, Vanya herself was attacked. She was particularly horrified when, against her will, the Sleeper Agent reconditioning activated and she knocked four Spearbreakers recruits unconscious. It wasn't long afterwards until she entered Mr Frog's laboratory.
Mr Frog was waiting for her, and as she tried to find her bracelet to destroy it, he attacked her with his sawpike. This delayed Vanya long enough that, as she was in close proximity to her bracelet again, its software reinstating her old artificial desire to protect it. She attempted to do so, but Mr Frog thwarted her efforts with a specially-designed lethal poison gas. Before she slipped from consciousness, she managed to shatter the bracelet on the floor, revealing the electrical circuitry within for the first time. Mr Frog immediately realized his mistake and revived her so as to query her for information.
Employment under Mr Frog[]
When she awoke, it was revealed that Vanya possessed information about Joseph - someone the Mr Frog clone (the one residing at Spearbreakers) had no knowledge of. This, in conjunction with other details, led him to offer her a deal. In the end, Vanya accepted: In exchange for her life and the lives of Urist and Hans, she agreed to serve Mr Frog as an assistant until he had no more use of her services. Vanya promptly rescued Urist and Hans from execution by Mr Frog's authority (they had been charged with treason), and began her time in the employment of Mr Frog.
Soon after she began studying, Vanya happened to insert the Identity Drive in Mr Frog's personal computer, and Mr Frog learned much about Joseph. Fearing for his safety, he decided to try to get his old PEA back from Ballpoint, which contained a large quantity of data and weapon blueprints. He taught Vanya everything he believed she needed to know, introducing her to the Timewar, Parasol, Ballpoint, and everything else related to those topics.
While she did poorly with Mr Frog's area of expertise, bioneurological chemistry, Vanya excelled at anything mechanical or electrical, to the point that she could assemble a portal from spare parts, though with minor difficulties. Mr Frog was determined to use this strength to his advantage while procuring his old PEA, as well as the mysterious figure in Ballpoint that claimed to be Vanya (who was actually Salaia herself).
The first mission to Ballpoint[]
In the Spring of 207, when Mr Frog felt Vanya was ready, he forged a false ID for her and obtained a Ballpoint spy suit. He persuaded her to clothe herself in it and promptly gave her a haircut in an attempt to make her unnoticeable among the Ballpoint contractors. With this complete, he sent her through his makeshift portal alone into Ballpoint's nearest outpost, where he himself had served for nearly two hundred years, making sure to give her a prototype Portal Bracelet beforehand.
Her mission was to travel to the warehouse district, where she would retrieve Mr Frog's PEA. After several mishaps, she eventually found herself in the outpost's barracks, a victim of perverted mischief. She might have been sexually assaulted, had it not been for Bugi, a higher-ranking contractor, who sent the grunts away from her. Bugi then led her to the warehouse herself, thinking Vanya a Ballpoint employee. Vanya looked similar enough to Ballpoint's "Carena" (aka Salaia) that Bugi couldn't tell the difference, each being only an acquaintance to her.
Unfortunately for Vanya, she found she needed an access keycard in order to enter the warehouses, and she couldn't think of where to get one. This threw her into a panic and she returned home empty handed, to Mr Frog's extreme displeasure.
After removing her spy suit and donning her regular clothing, as well as her beanie to cover her ears, she followed Mr Frog's instructions and met him at The Workshops, where she soon discovered Urist and Hans. Mr Frog had decided that the mission to Ballpoint would have a higher chance of success if he sent in a team rather than a single person. He made it Vanya's task to teach her friends about the Timewar, as well as modern science and technology.
The second mission to Ballpoint[]
Mr Frog started the second mission in the morning following the first, not desiring to waste any time. He gave Urist and Hans a quick briefing, as well as Vanya, and sent them through the portal as quickly as he could. Their objectives were to locate an access keycard, enter the warehouse district, get the PEA and get out as stealthily as possible.
Soon after entering the Ballpoint outpost, they encountered Commander Acetalyta in a hallway. Urist and Hans acted as if they were seducing her, while they were actually distracting her while they stole the keycard for Vanya. They managed this successfully, but Vanya was left with the impression that Urist was flirting with Acetalyta, and it made her jealous. She knew by this time that she had fallen in love with Urist, and it was bothering her that he could flirt with Acetalyta at all, even to the point that she forgot why he had done it.
Vanya made her way to the warehouses and met Halion, a security guard, who helped her find the location of Mr Frog's PEA, thinking her a Ballpoint employee. They liked each other, but he abruptly had to leave due to a disturbance elsewhere. Vanya made her way to the PEA's supposed location and discovered that the spot in which it was supposed to sit was empty. Disappointed, she scooped up all the PEAs in the immediate vicinity, left, and made her way back towards the rendezvous point, looking for Urist and Hans.
Along the way, she saw Salaia in the hallway, although she didn't recognize her at the time. Soon afterwards she found Halion lying in a pool of blood, and stayed with him as he died. By this point she was terribly upset with Urist, because she believed that he'd killed her new friend, as well as flirting with a Ballpoint commander when she'd thought he liked her.
Vanya soon found her allies, who had stolen Ballpoint subrailguns and were defending themselves with them. Still upset, she began picking a fight with Urist, confronting him for what he'd done with Acetalyta. She was hurt that he would do something with someone else, even though they weren't in a relationship, and this last fact hurt even more. Urist didn't understand why she was upset and lashed back at her, and they argued until Hans reminded them they needed to leave. Utilizing the Portal Bracelet Mr Frog had given Vanya, they soon found themselves back at Spearbreakers, where the quarrel soon began anew. Urist was finally beginning to understand why Vanya was upset when she, distraught, accidentally and unknowingly revealed that she loved him, while storming out of Mr Frog's laboratory and into her bedroom.
Following the second unsuccessful mission, Mr Frog decided that Vanya wasn't capable of a Ballpoint mission without an unreasonable amount of training, and told her so. He refused to allow her to leave his laboratory, instead having her assist with laboratory experiments and act as a sort of servant, as he didn't feel dismissing her was an option. Splint had accepted Ballpoint soldiers into the fortress as hired labor, believing them to be "foreign mercenaries". (See Mercenary Incident) They were searching for any signs of Vanya, Urist or Hans, as the trio had caused a considerable amount of damage to the Ballpoint outpost. Thus, it wasn't safe for Vanya to leave.
The nightmare[]
Everything continued peacefully for a time, but without Vanya's golden bracelet, the effects of Ballpoint's mental reconditioning was beginning to wear away from her mind. The first evidence of this was a memory in the form of a nightmare, where she recalled massacring close to two dozen Ballpoint agents at the forges, as well as a little dwarven girl. It seemed to be a memory to her, and she left Mr Frog's quarters and traveled down to the forges to try to prove to herself that she hadn't killed anyone. It was then that she found the stuffed gorlak doll belonging to the little girl she had murdered, confirming her fears that it was an actual memory and not just a dream.
Ballpoint was aware of her movements and sent a small squad down to capture her. She would have been, had it not been for Urist, who happened to find her. He led her up the central staircase, and they ducked into a small tunnel on one side to escape a second Ballpoint squad. This tunnel led into the Gorlak Caves, where Urist had previously stashed his subrailgun following the Ballpoint excursion.
Urist led Vanya through the darkness and into the Crystal Grotto, where a beam of moonlight pierced the ceiling and set a romantic mood. Vanya suddenly realized that Urist loved her, and they nearly shared a kiss before they were interrupted by a Gorlak. While Urist quickly dispatched it, over two dozen other gorlaks appeared, and Vanya realized they were standing in a gorlak nest. The two people fled from the grotto and attempted to find where Urist had stashed his and Hans' weapons. They soon managed, and Urist gave Vanya Hans' railgun, despite her protests. This is because the two were standing in a dead end, and forced to walk back through the gorlak nest to escape.
When they re-entered the crystal cave, they were attacked by the gorlak alpha male, which soon brought all of the gorlaks rushing in on them at once. Vanya quickly discovered that her weapon cartridge was empty, and Urist killed off as many gorlaks as he could while Vanya dodged the charging beasts. It proved too difficult for her to keep up for very long, however, and she soon found herself on the floor and at the mercy of several of the creatures. She would have died, had Mr Frog not appeared with a Serrated Disc Launcher and decimated their ranks. As it was later revealed, the gorlaks were an experiment by Mr Frog, who was attempting to breed them as war creatures for the defense of the fortress.
After they were safe, Mr Frog led Vanya and Urist to his hidden passages under the fortress - the Frog Tunnels. Partway through, he sent Urist up a side passageway, telling him to leave the fortress. During this walk, Vanya had explained to Mr Frog that she had remembered another memory, and he had wanted to ascertain what it was. Unfortunately, she was too tense to be of use to him, so he decided to ease her nerves by taking her to the Central Watchtower. After they had spent some time looking at the stars, Vanya revealed to Mr Frog everything she knew, and he explained the particulars of Sleeper Agents to her. Following this, they returned to Mr Frog's laboratory for the night.
The revelation[]
Mr Frog, realizing that Ballpoint's mental reconditioning was beginning to fade away, gave Vanya a second dose of the memory serum the next day, although he enhanced it somewhat beforehand. After it began to take effect, she was able to recall everything about how Ballpoint had captured her and taken her to Parasol's labs, erasing her memories of her sister. During this, Vanya was finally able to remember her sister entirely - her name, face, and everything about her. Although the memory itself was unpleasant, Vanya was overjoyed, and later asked Mr Frog if she could undertake a mission to rescue her sister. To her surprise, Mr Frog agreed, although he stated a condition that she properly retrieve his Ballpoint PEA on her third, and final, attempt. He also revealed that he had created a special suit of armor for her, but it was to be some time before she actually saw it.
Friendship with Wari[]
In the early Spring of 208, Lord Reudh's reign, Count Splint finally sent away the Ballpoint soldiers, and Vanya made her first solitary excursion into the fortress in almost two years. She was searching for Wari, to ask her more about her past, and ask why Wari had forced her to attack and kill so many Ballpoint soldiers. It was actually Joseph that had done this, but Vanya did not yet know at the time.
Arriving at the hospital, she discovered that Wari had been missing for some time. Fortunately, she soon met Jack Magnus, who was very friendly to her - friendly enough to throw Vanya off her guard to where she accidentally gave him her name instead of her moniker, "V". He was helpful, and had soon sent her off towards the forges to meet with another Parasol agent, Draconik Sankis. Draconik had seemingly hacked into Mr Frog's surveillance system and was expecting her arrival. After extracting a promise that she would assist him, and tell him all she knew about Joseph, Draconik pointed Vanya towards Orodogoth's soapmaker's workshops, saying that Orodogoth knew where Wari was hidden. Vanya made her way there, and although Orodogoth proved to be somewhat difficult to maintain a sane conversation with, she was soon on her way through a trapdoor and ladder to Wari's Hideout.