Appearance

Physical Description

Her overall build is slim, almost dainty. Like all Kruggunites she is of course much tougher and stronger than her appearance would suggest.

Identifying Characteristics

Her rose gold eyes have a dark rim, and the irises can be caught moving when she uses her gift.

Apparel & Accessories

Ilya dresses in a variety of ways, but consitently wears a feathery hairpin and gems in some fashion. As of recently, she has taken to wearing her custom built armour that she made herself, powered by her gems.

Special abilities

She has been blessed with the Keen Eyes gift, allowing her to see more and farther than others. She uses this to land precise shots with her defense tools, and also uses it to appraise gems and create finely detailed work on her creations.

Mentality

Personal history

Ilya Crosspoint grew up in the age before the Enlightenment, when there were still harsh divisions between nobility and the lower class. She would originally have learnt the ways of a mechanic if it weren't for the fall of Babylon that marked the turning of the age, and the death of much of her known family.

Instead, she learned the ways of the thief, spy and murderer in order to help make a living for her suddenly impoverished family. After nearly a decade's worth of hard work, she managed to pull them out of their situation far enough that they could continue their old trade of working on airships, an initially expensive endeavor that got easier with time.

Having learned that the trade wasn't for her, she instead stuck with her old work for a while longer, saving up enough and teaching herself enough about tinkering that she opened her own shop on point 7, where she has largely abandoned her old form of work in favor of doing what she enjoys and what is far less likely to get her killed.

Much of this seems to have changed upon a fateful day, 12 years after the Burning. Krugg himself decided to visit her shop, give her a hug, and assign her the task of taking care of the next group of Talthorians who would be arriving since the grand events with the Marsdens and new Ambasador...

Education

Ilya was raised like any Kruggunite with a basic education, while learning a bit of the family trade on the side. By the time she finished she and her family had discovered she had not inherited the knack for mechanics and engineering, and was instead much more interested and talented in tinkering. Due to the chaos caused by the burning of Babylon and the subsequent family turmoil, she was not able to pursue a proper education in her preferred field, and much of her tinkering knowledge is from her own experience or stolen information.

Employment

During the hardships Post Babylon, she had to resort to less savory means of making a living. She learnt the information trade and black market dealings, and secretly made ends meet through just those avenues until her family managed to get back on their feet and dust themselves off.

Once they were all sorted and back in business, she realized that she had no place in their workshops, not truly. She was a tinkerer and possessed skills more suited for things other than building and repairing ships. Deciding to make her own way in life, she collected the funds to start her own operation and opened the Silver Lining, a jewelry, clothing and accessories store that offers more services, if you know how to ask. She remains the sole owner and worker of the store to this day.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Ilya is the founder of the relatively successful Silver Lining, owned and managed by her since the beginning.

She has discovered how to deconstruct material quenaztium into its raw energy form using frequencies, and has developed a machine that can do so. She has also discovered how to store said energy in gemstones to use as power sources, for which she has also created an invention.

She has been chosen by Krugg to serve as his "eyes and ears" outside of Automata.

As far as she is aware, she is among the first Kruggunites to leave Automata, or the planet on the edge of Nowhere.

Failures & Embarrassments

She has, and will continue to, have little regard for the life of others, even her fellow Kruggunites. While she feels it to be an extreme resort, she has and will kill others if she finds the alternative, or the consequences thereof, to be too problematic, and she will feel little to no remorse for doing so once she has made up her mind.

Mental Trauma

She was 19 by the turning of the age, when the city fell into turmoil and the whole status quo was upended. She lost much of her known family during the fights and chaos, as the family was closely tied to the nobility of the time, who were a major target during the event.

In particular, she was with her mother who was severely injured and killed during the first moments of the event, and was unable to save her, something that has weighed heavy in her heart through the years since.

Intellectual Characteristics

A sharp memory and the ability to focus on the current matter at hand regardless of circumstances has served Ilya well throughout her life. She has grown a love of learning, at the cost of failing to retain any information at all if it doesn't seem important or just uninteresting, the primary example being jewelry crafting and gem work which she never had a true interest in until far later in life, leading to her journey as a jeweler being a long and annoying one.

Morality & Philosophy

The events at Babylon deeply affected her and the way she viewed things. Where before she was altruistic, loving and naïve, she learned the very fundamental truth that everyone has their own story and agenda, and that their kindness is never guaranteed.

The Ilya of today can be described as kind, but selfish. She used to hold a deep hatred for the lower classes due to the death of her mother and family, but after dealing with them first hand to make a living, she let that hatred go, realizing them to not be entirely faulty, and that she was blaming herself as much as she was blaming them. She has still lost all regard for the life of others, other than that of those close to her, having permanently shifted to the view that you cannot care for both the world and yourself at the same time, and priorities must be decided on. With her negative viewpoint of others, especially the lower-class at the time, she drew a clean distinction between her loved ones and anyone else, which never really changed.

She has a very individualistic point of view, believing that in the end, all things are the result of someone trying to achieve something they want, one way or another, or the results of someone manipulating a system originally set in place by another. She has a flimsy regard for law, feeling that it should be treated as a general guideline, and that every person should take care of themselves, and if the law disapproves of the method, that it should simply be forgone; though being able to live freely within its bounds is much simpler and easier than not.

person.sexuality

Ilya has found herself to appreciate both male and female forms from time to time, though tends to prefer males. This view has never stretched farther than visual appeal though, as she has no interest in the topic of partnership or reproduction.

person.gender_identity

Ilya sees herself as and considers herself to be as she physically is - female. Despite this, due to her disinterest with the topics of gender and reproduction, she does not care what others call her or how they treat her regarding this topic.

Taboos

Unlike many Kruggunites, Ilya has grown interested in what the Talthorians call magic, calls it such, and has decided that she would try to learn it, even if it would be frowned upon by her society who firmly believes that everything has to be done by or through a machine.

Known Languages

As a Kruggunite who has never left the city, and only encountered Talthorians in the past year, she knows no other languages. Instead, she has developed the ability to mimic any voice or sound she has heard for at least a minute, male or female, person or animal, bizzare or not.

Personality

Motivation

Any Kruggunite would tell you that their primary goal is to make and innovate. Ilya is no different. She enjoys tinkering, and is deeply interested in what she could do with her new discovery of quenaztium essence. Of course, many things can get in the way in life, and she has worked hard to eliminate such annoying variables from her day to day. Of course, when something threatens to upturn the whole city, she would naturally feel compelled to do everything she can to preserve her way of life.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

She is well versed in how to dig up information in Automata, particularly through the routes that very few know exist.

Magic, while a concept frowned upon by many Kruggunites, is something that facinates her, even though she has absolutely know idea what it is or how it works, even after making a bracer that uses the stuff to allow a changeling to turn into a true dragon.

Likes & Dislikes

Ilya loves getting lost in tinkering with all sorts of things and being forced to figure out how to make something work, just by working on it in general.

What she doesn't appreciate, is when others wantonly break or destroy these things, particularly if its something she has spent a long time on.

Virtues & Personality perks

Though she can be cold, when she has grown close to someone, or respects them, she can be very loyal, granted you don't lose her respect along the way...

Vices & Personality flaws

Ilya can be hesitant at times, after years of growing complacent to do things by the book and above board in her shop after leaving her more criminal career behind. She's lost touch with what she can get away with, and lacks faith in her abilities that are sharper than she remembers.

Personality Quirks

Ilya consistently has scrap and parts on her which she uses to tinker away when in thought, usually on something recent, like making bullets for her gun, or fiddling with any tools she has to see if she can improve them.

Social

Birthplace

Automata

Current Residence

Silver Lining, Point 7

Contacts & Relations

Jackie Marker is a chipper teenage girl from the lower points who seems to be endlessly busy doing this and that all over the place. Ilya pays her for bits of gossip and whatever other rumors she can bring her, not necessarily because she is interested and finds such information valuable, but because she likes the girl who reminds her much of herself before she founded her store. She often uses her for various other errands as well, including looking after the store for short periods of time. 

Zack Locker is an old contact from her black market days whom she still speaks with on a semi-regular basis to this day for this and that. He seems always happy to help her out as long as he gets a cut of whatever she has going on.

Wealth & Financial state

Ilya does well for a single owner of a store on Point 7, able to make more than enough money for herself an her hobbies even if the income is irregular. If she put her mind to it, she could save up enough to live a lavish lifestyle with others running the store for her, while she idles away in whatever fancily decorated place she built for herself, but she is not interested in such things and more than happy to live simple but well.

Family Ties

Though she lost a good deal of her known family 12 years ago, some have still survived that she keeps an ear to the ground for, and occasionally visits, just to make sure they're ok. Her only direct family to have survived is her father, Tarkin Crosspoint who takes care of her aunt Yulia and her cousins Tilly and Mara, all of which work in the reestablished Crosspoint Airworks in some capacity. Though she visits rarely, she made a point of it to send them gifts and a little something extra every month or so.

Religious Views

Like any Kruggunite she is a steadfast believer in Krugg, and it would be impossible to convince her not to believe in him. How could she not, when she seems him semi-weekly, has witnessed him use his grand power and has conversations with him like he is simply any other in the city? 

She knows that Krugg is responsible for all in Automata, for all on her home planet, and that their purpose is to create and invent and that they were expressly made in such a way that they could dedicate themselves to this. This has not stopped her from being curious about the Talthorian's 'magic' and way of doing things, but she maintains to herself that using a machine to do things for you is more elegant than doing things in any other way, like just bending reality to your will.

Social Aptitude

She is well enough versed in the social norms of Automata to get by quite well in the mid and upper points. She is familiar with the mannerisms of the lower point and the backrooms and black market, and while she can tell what someone might be up to, she is more comfortable on the upper levels. This only applies to Automata however, as she has never been off-world and only learnt of and met Talthorians in the past year.

Mannerisms

When not in use or in another position because of circumstances, her hands are in one of three positions: clasped together and held to her chest, one arm folded over the other and holding the arm/elbow, or folded behind her in some fashion.

Hobbies & Pets

Ilya has grown interested in the study and use of quenaztium, and by extension - "magic", ever since she discovered how to break the substance down into a raw energy form, which again compounded when she met her new Talthorian friends and was requested to make something to help the changeling Nathiri become a true dragon, if only briefly. Though she completed the request and it appears to work, she has no idea what she did, and is actively seeking more opportunities to study it.

Speech

She has a high pitched voice and speaks softly, with an accent somewhat similar to conservative RP from the UK. While the majority of her vocabulary is proper, she at times interjects various slang words or phrases, and it tends to increase the more overwhelmed, frightened or angry she feels. When uncertain about whom she is speaking to or the topic being discussed, she frequently pauses to think for a moment after hearing a reply or statement, leading to mildly odd and sometimes awkward interactions.