"She said she was a Magic Mama
And she could throw a mean Tarot
And carried on without a comma
That she was someone I should know."
- -- Frank Zappa, "Camarillo Brillo"
DESCRIPTION
N'kenge is a big, brawny black panther'taur, roughly seven feet from head to toe and nine from tip to tail. Her frame shows subtle but telling signs of low-grade bodysculpt. Something about the muscle structure of her six legs and four arms looks unnatural, maybe even unmammalian. Those who knew her before her disappearance may notice new signs of age, a little grey around her brow, a little extra crease by her eyes when she sneers, a little more regret in her pitiless snarl. This neither adds nor detracts from her handsome looks, but sure as hell makes her look witchier.
Her black headfur is neatly cornrowed with little beads, under an African-style cap woven with small red and green triangles. Ribbons of mirrored silver wrap the enormous cat here and there. They make impressionistic hints at garments, just enough to keep her decent, plus a bit of decoration near pulse points. The ribbons flutter constantly around her, entirely heedless of wind currents; they even leap off of her now and then, often bringing small presents knotted in their lengths when they return. One ribbon loops her neck in a loose band, hung with a silver ball pendant; closer inspection reveals it is a glass sphere filled with quicksilver.
BACKGROUND
N'kenge is an aspiring master of kordelopathy, a pseudo-magical art native to her homeland, involving the projection of willpower through specially treated ribbons and other textiles. She came to Puzzlebox seeking two of its most famed exports -- power and self-indulgence -- but both have so far escaped her.
After her first disappearance from the public eye of the Mess, N'kenge tried to trick her way into the master artisan cabals of Topwarp, seeking new forms of clothmaking to integrate into her craft. Unsurprisingly, she totally failed to ingratiate herself to any section of Topwarpian society, and learned very little that her tutors gave willingly or knowingly -- which is not to say she learned nothing.
Eventually, the Ccirhoibakoa, a Chitinous sisterhood of silkweavers, grew tired of finding her spy-threads in their baskets. They sent a drone to recite to her a polite suggestion -- in the most formal possible terms, including eerily cordial offers of an "indentured apprenticeship" -- that N'kenge would benefit from removing her scent from Topwarp for the next several thousand years. N'kenge took the advice to heart -- though not before paying an unannounced and rather fleet-footed visit to (or rather, through) a Ccirhoibakoa hatchery, wearing a dozen homemade scarves impregnated with purloined Ichor of Abasement. If N'kenge knew the Ccirhoibakoa had not a single queen born to them that season, she would climb to the roof of Downwarp and laugh her arse off.
Since then, N'kenge has been living inside a drained megatanker truck marooned on the Ballardway. She has converted the enormous vehicle into a curiosity shop which has already gained some infamy. The locals are dealing far better than the Topwarpers with her mercurial streak and her charming habit of destroying every inanimate object in her presence when frustrated -- as a matter of fact, it has improved her bartering position, since her clients know what they find there once may not survive till they return.
CHARACTER
N'kenge is a boisterous, haughty, unpredictable cat. She's prone to indulging her whims, both cruel and kind, without consideration for the social consequences. She's content to let people think her a fool for this, but she really just can't imagine any reaction worth her concern. Underneath her impulsive exterior lies a crafty personality skilled at gathering secrets, discovering weaknesses, and tormenting the shiny. She absolutely loves holding things over people's heads, and loves letting an enmity simmer until the time is just right. It is virtually impossible to get to her by embarrassment or shame. One of her few virtues is knowing when to pretend to drop a grudge. Another is an occasional whim to champion an underdog, though on the surface this usually involves as much cruelty as her vendettas.
KORDELOPATHY
A few of the known or hypothetical capabilities that N'kenge has through her ribbons:
- Disproportionate strength
- Clairvoyance and clairaudience
- Limited ability to fetch or project very small objects (often just liquids or dusts) through space, time, and possibly even narrativity or alternate causality
- Oracular visions (by blindfolding another subject)
- Healing (by use as bandages) and possible genetheft
- Animation of ordinary clothing (requires a magic mirror sample)
- Remote weaving and unraveling of ordinary fibers (does not require use of kordelopathic textiles)
- "Taping" of memories by application to a nerve cluster
- Blurring, camouflage, and eventual invisibility (though N'kenge herself has not mastered the latter)
- Flight and levitation (though she's not nearly powerful enough to hoist her own body, she can lift most others)
- Compact encryption of objects within ordinary 3D space (requires a square of kordelopathic fabric large enough to cover object; she MIGHT be able to do it to herself in a pinch, but it would require breaking most of the bones in her body)
RELATIONSHIPS
- As far as N'kenge's concerned, Amanita is her first and dearest friend in the Mess. Tragically, this is probably accurate, insofar as it goes. She was never anything but [abrasive and insulting] to Amanita, but N'kenge saw it as a test, a friendly service for someone who (in her opinion) desperately needed to learn to deal with bullies like her. Recent troubles have made her nostalgic for the old days, and she's taken to wondering what ever became of the Shiny. Amanita's ravishment and conversion by the Neke are not likely to sit well with the big gal. (Update: No, it didn't.)
- Doubtless to their chagrin, Trilogee, Induction-Coil, and Torque were N'kenge's first public contact since she chose to emerge from her shop and go off looking for Amanita. Contrary to all appearances, she liked all three of them. Torque seems like just her kind of guy. Indi's shyness plays unwittingly on her latent maternal streak. Trilogee is most likely to be seen as a replacement for Amanita: N'kenge's foil, butt of her jokes, and occasional confidant, whether she likes it or not.
- Chagrin my ass! It's good to see a vivid, living person! Trilogee
- Oh, and I'm not a vivid, living, breathing person most of the time? Torque
- How many others do you see outside your own factions? I don't even see many in mine. Trilogee
- As predicted, N'kenge's discovery of Amanita's involvement with the Neke did not go well. Perhaps she learned about sabina's transformation to nectar-slave a little too soon after the news was broken to her of Amanita's retraining. Too many of her old acquaintances "lost" (as far as she's concerned) at once. She's already taken to making snide comments about "what's left of sabina." She can't imagine any of the slavekitten's reassurances about the Neke's decency are anything but brainwashed honey-talk.
- For reasons undisclosed, she also knows all about Kehari?'s recent troubles -- knows enough to trust her, at least trust her sincerity. But she doesn't seem to suspect she's worth a damn as a potential ally, especially not under such obvious Neke influence. She has told Kehari such to her face. And Kehari's air of imperturable calm in the face of her hostility just convinced N'kenge even further that the Neke are stirring the vixen's brain with a fork, however sincerely Kehari herself believes she can be trusted.
- She's not much more impressed with Lysette -- chipper types usually don't make a good impression on her -- though she is grudgingly grateful for the hospitality and assistance the two gave her on their first encounter.
- She seemed uncharacteristically enthusiastic to see Phoenix again! Maybe she's just getting nostalgic in her old age, maybe she's just glad to see familiar faces without antennae jittering out of them.
- She met Untitled, but was too distracted to get much of an impression. Suffice it to say she probably received a better one than she made on him.
- She's already sworn, in unwisely public forums, to eat okyno's hands with salt and butter someday if Amanita's condition is as half as dire as she's heard.