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'''Marissa''' was a | {{Infobox Individual | ||
|main alias = Marissa | |||
|species = Posthuman | |||
|job = Novice | |||
|affiliation = Plume Coteries | |||
|origin = [[Plume Coteries' Library]] | |||
|first = White Canvas (novel) | |||
|appearances = [[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}} | |||
}} | |||
'''Maritsa''', ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) formerly '''Marissa''', ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|White Canvas (novel)}}, {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) was a [[Novice]] of the [[Plume Coteries]], native to their [[Plume Coteries' Library|infinite Library]]. Alongside fellow Novice [[Callum]], she became a fugitive from her own people to save [[Coloth]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
== Biography == | |||
=== Origins === | |||
Like [[Callum]], Maritsa, as a born member of the [[Plume Coteries]], was "[[human-ish]]", that is to say, a [[posthuman]]. Though mostly [[human]]-like in biology, this involved a few discrepancies, such as the native ability to read any language. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) Her name was originally "Marissa", ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|White Canvas (novel)}}) but it was retroactively changed by [[Sixteenth Auteur|Auteur]] by one letter in order to protect her from the [[Interdimensional Copyright Office]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
=== Early life === | |||
As a [[Novice]] of the [[Plume Coteries]], a teenaged Maritsa got basic training in a number of skills, including "a bit of [[bookbinding]] training", a "training course" on people like [[Auteur]] who displayed a metafictional awareness of their own fictionality, and the "briefing" that was given even to "very junior Bookkeepers" about not panicking if they found a book on the Library's shelves which seemed to feature ''them'' as a fictional character. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
=== Rescuing Coloth === | |||
At some point, a teenaged Maritsa and fellow [[Novice]] [[Callum]] became aware of [[Coloth]], one of the subjects of the [[Plume Coteries]]' programme of [[Time-Ladle|Time-Ladling]] dead eyewitnesses to historical events out of time, transferring a [[biodata-print]] of their [[consciousness]] into a [[holo-cube]], and then interrogating them. Normal procedure would have been to destroy the cube once Coloth's interrogation was done, but Maritsa and Callum felt strongly that this would be wrong, particularly as Coloth had been killed before his time in his original lifetime. Though the realisation that she "ha[d] a [[heart]]" caused Maritsa some "distress", the two eventually conspired to "check him out of the restricted section" and then "never gave him back". | |||
Originally, the trio were meant to quickly meet and befriend a dimension-travelling [[Birdhemoth]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) [[Rich (Sonnenblumen)|Rich]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Sonnenblumen (short story)}}) but [[Sixteenth Auteur|Auteur]] interfered with this, retroactively deleting Rich from existence. As a result, Maritsa, Callum and Coloth instead spent over three [[month]]s as fugitives within the Library itself, camping out in unexplored floors and using [[Callum's map]] to find [[vending machine]]s and [[bathroom]]s from which they could salvage [[food]] and [[water]]. They gradually grew closer in the process, despite their uncertainty about the future. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
=== Auteur and Naimon === | |||
Eventually, their camp was found by [[Master Librarian]] [[Naimon]]. He wounded [[Callum]] lightly with a [[crossbow]]-bolt, and eventually managed to capture the three. Naimon searched the Novices, and found Callum's map, on which the two had earmarked [[Floor 899,167,435,042]] as their next destination. As this Floor had been incompletely explored by Naimon's ancestor [[Master Librarian]] [[Roland (The Cactus and the Corpse)|Roland]], Naimon decided to use the map to finish the job and reap twice the glory before he brought his captives back to the [[Plume Coteries]]. On the way, taking advantage of his overconfidence and self-inflicted poor [[eyesight]], Maritsa and Callum tricked Naimon into walking into an empty elevator shaft, killing him. With [[Coloth]]'s help, they made their own way down, still intending to take advantage of the "[[village]]-sized" [[bathroom]]s to wash and restock on [[water]]. | |||
After getting there, they discovered that the map was incomplete because Floor 899,167,435,042 was where Roland had confronted Auteur centuries prior; Roland had ended up burning the entire Floor down in an effort to kill Auteur. The blood spilled by Naimon's death allowed Auteur to [[Regeneration|create]] a [[Seventeenth Auteur|new body]] for himself. After blithely telling the teenagers about the ways in which he had interfered in their lives according to his sense of what made for a better [[story]], he attempted to complete the ritual Roland had interrupted centuries prior, which was meant to summon [[the Bookwyrm]], a "[[god]]-[[serpent]]" deeply rooted in the structure of the Library. He succeeded, only for the Bookwyrm to reveal it had no intention of being controlled, and eat Auteur right in front of the baffled teens. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
=== Later activities === | |||
During their brief encounter, [[Seventeenth Auteur|Auteur]] admitted that his retconning-out of [[Rich (Sonnenblumen)|Rich]] had been a "rushed job" which probably wouldn't "stick", predicting that the teenagers would find him again sooner or later. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
At a point when she and [[Coloth]] were apparently accepted as part of the [[Bookkeeper]]s' hierarchy, Marissa helped [[Graelyn Scythes]], [[Archimedes Von Ahnerabe]], [[Lady Aesculapius]], and [[Auteur]] find ''[[The Book of the Enemy]]'' when they visited the Library during the first stages of [[the White Canvas]] crisis. Notably, from Auteur's perspective, this took place during [[War in Heaven|the war]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|White Canvas (short story)}}) in contrast to Maritsa's earlier adventures which [[the Bookwyrm]] described as a contemporary to the [[post-War universe]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
== Physical appearance == | |||
Maritsa had very pale [[skin]] and a thick "swarm" of [[freckle]]s on her face. She kept her hair in very tight [[braid]]s even though it "would barely have reached her [[shoulder]]s even if she'd let it loose". As a [[Novice]] [[Bookkeeper]], she wore simple [[brown]] [[robe]]s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) | |||
{{NameSort}} | |||
[[Category:Individual posthumans]] | [[Category:Individual posthumans]] | ||
[[Category:Members of the Plume Coteries]] | |||
[[Category:Librarians]] | |||
[[Category:Criminals]] |