Addie Naurum is a platinum fox and bounty hunter who was born in 552 GD, during the Golden Age.
Addie was left on the doorstep of Terry Naurum as an infant of between one and two months. Terry, who was at the time a single man in his mid twenties living in an apartment in a bad part of town and barely making rent as it was, chose to raise the girl on his own, naming her Addie after someone who had helped inspire him in his youth.
Little blue sky, won't you stay? Now the storm has gone away,
No more fright, say goodnight, rise to meet another day.
You will always be my love, cherished light my turtle dove,
And you know you're always safe here, come what may. —Terry Naurum, “Little Blue Sky”
Addie began learning the ukulele almost as soon as she was old enough to hold one, by the age of four she could play a few chords, and by the age of five she could sing while playing.
She first played a child-size guitar when she was six, and by the time she was eight, she had begun learning on a full-size guitar. Overall, her childhood was peaceful. She had a very close relationship with her adoptive father Terry, who taught her how to sing and play instruments.
Terry, at this time in his life, had released several albums, including one album of lullabies he used to sing for Addie. This album of lullabies was a surprise hit, resulting in Terry (and by extension, Addie) receiving an unexpected windfall. They moved out of the apartment and Terry bought a house in a nicer neighborhood.
She is a baptized Ennian, and attended church on Ixdays as she grew up. She was devoutly religious in her youth, but she gradually distanced herself from the church as she grew up.
If you're only nice because you want something, then maybe you're not all that nice. —Addie Naurum, age 12
Addie stopped going to church at the age of 11, and took up an interest in hoop. As Addie was already quite tall for her age, she had a seemingly natural advantage over the other children, but her extreme growth rate made it difficult for her to remain coordinated, so she did not excel at the sport early on.
Addie was not an attentive student, and had poor grades throughout school. Despite that, she was popular with other students, often copying their homework.
Once she was in high school, she improved her hoop skills rapidly, becoming the captain of the high school team in her sophomore year and retaining that position until she graduated.
In her senior year, as VR games had become more popular, Addie became a variety streamer who streamed exercise games, dance games, and sports games to a small audience. She would occasionally play the guitar and sing while streaming.
In the summer of the year 570 GD, Addie attended a graduation party held by one of her friends. She borrowed her father's stage glasses (a pair of lenseless pince-nez with some ornamentation on the outside of the frames), and a digital camera which she keeps on her person at all times. She went to the party at 3 PM, enjoyed herself, stayed until 9 PM, and then walked home.
While walking, she noticed a little girl running away from a fast food restaurant with a man in pursuit. Addie put herself between the little girl and the approaching man, as the little girl screamed about how she just wanted to go home. The man reached out to push Addie out of the way, but Addie wouldn't move. He tried to go around Addie, but she lunged to stay in front of him. Finally, he yelled something about how his daughter was just throwing a tantrum, but she didn't buy that. Finally, a van rolled up, and another man jumped out with a gun, opening fire at Addie. Addie charged at the gunman, managing to tackle and disarm him, but she was losing blood rapidly and the pain was so intense she could barely see or breathe. A deep, piercing cold enveloped her. The little girl escaped, managing to get away from her pursuers in the confusion.
But Addie was losing too much blood, too quickly. The pursuers pushed her weakening body away, got back into the van, and drove off. The little girl came out of hiding, trying to help Addie to her feet again, but Addie could no longer stand.
Go home, kid. The streets at night are no place for a little girl. —Last words of Addie, age 18
The child stayed for a few seconds, looking around for anyone who could come help. But, seeing no one, she took off running for her home.
Officially, this was when Addie died. A tragedy which made national news. Eventually her murderers were caught and brought to trial for murder as well as attempted kidnapping.
Her father abandoned his career as a musician to become a public speaker, advocating for stricter laws against human trafficking and firearms, and using the death of his daughter as an example.
But for all the media coverage, for all the people who insisted she must have survived, her body was never found. Eventually, the world moved on. Eventually, even her father had to go back a normal life.
But he never truly accepted that his daughter was dead.
Addie opened her eyes to find everything uncomfortably bright. Gone was the grass of the roadside and the unforgiving concrete of the sidewalk.
She was asked whether she would like to be healed. She said yes.
She was asked if she was willing to transcend the limits of her species. She said yes.
She was asked if she was willing to abandon the body she once knew. She said yes.
She was asked if she could accept never seeing anyone she knew again. She said no.
She was reminded that this was the only way she could be guaranteed survival.
She thought about it for a moment, and then she said yes.
Her body was reconstructed using magics previously unknown to Mersia, inventions of a mad genius who had been away from home for too long, and been alone for too long, and who had forgotten right and wrong, preoccupied only by “is” and “could be”. As though the gunshots had been a dream, Addie woke, dressed in unfamiliar clothes, with her digital camera and glasses on a small table beside her bed. But that was where her familiarity ended. She got up and looked for a mirror. Upon finding one, she was surprised to find that she looked exactly the same. She lifted her shirt, and looked in the mirror. Where she knew she had been shot countless times, there were not even scars.
The Mage entered and explained that no wound Addie ever received would be fatal ever again. As long as her body had enough fat reserves to draw upon, it could heal from any wound.
Addie entered the tutelage of The Mage, who taught her the way of the sword. Her training regimen was unbelievably strict, in essence being a 24-hour ordeal, with even her sleep scheduled. She was forced to train for twelve hours a day, with four thirty-minute breaks between mealtimes. She ate five meals throughout the day. One before training, and then one after every three hours of training. She maintained a calorie intake of around 4,000 per day.
The Mage always wore a cloak which covered his head, and only his hands were ever visible. The Mage told Addie that if she could ever remove his hood, she would be allowed to see his real face. Despite trying for over ten years, Addie never succeeded.
Addie developed physical abilities which are beyond those normally possessed by sapes. But The Mage was on another level entirely, and remained so.
After two years of training, Addie began to receive mission assignments from The Mage.
She would typically complete about three assignments per month, and over the course of this period of her life, she completed around five-hundred assignments, about half of which were “capture alive” assignments.
Typically her assignments would include petty criminals who had broken the law in areas with rich governments who could afford her services, wealthy criminals who were getting revenge on government officials who had crossed them, and rich people who were eliminating their competition. Addie had no illusions of being a hero at this point in her life, selling her services to the highest bidder, but always following through even if a larger offer was pushed toward her by the victim.
Addie rapidly became wealthy, soon adorning herself with all manner of golden jewelry. But, always, she maintained her training regimen, and never ate anything that was not given to her by Mage, even though the contents of the plate always looked like dog food.
The Mage, a master of tempumancy (or time travel) sent Addie far into the past and the future to collect bounties from different eras. Of these, the civilizations which were members of intergalactic councils (of which there were few, but enough to matter) would corroborate their stories and realize the same figure had been periodically appearing throughout their histories, with appearances hundreds of years apart.
She was known to them as “Platinum Gale”. This was a name Addie would keep in mind as a potential alias.
After eight years of work, The Mage offered to bring Addie on extended vacation to a planet which was unlike any other planet he had ever seen, which had no posted bounties, but which Addie might nevertheless find comfortingly familiar.
The Mage brought Addie to Earth. They spent two years there, during which time Addie was still expected to keep up her diet and training regimen, but apart from that she was given free reign to explore the planet as she pleased. She typically only visited conventions and other locations where she could pass off her appearance as being a costume.
She explored Earth's internet and pirated thousands of terabytes of media which she intended to read or watch or listen to later. This archive is still aboard her ship.
Addie found a copy of The Crosslink Saga owned by The Mage during one of her scheduled breaks. She skimmed through it, and soon noticed a picture of herself with five others she did not recognize. She read their names: Rimas Nolie, Marcel Tano, Jutse Aldwyn, Cae Lawrence, and Frost Lawrence. These were apparently close friends of hers. However, she had no memory of meeting them.
She then realized that this photo was from her own future, and that she had to go back to Mersia to meet them. She then asked Mage to send her back to this planet under the guise of having read about Marcel from a different source, and wanting to test her mettle against a supposed “strongest man in the world”, and one of her own species.
The Mage obliged her request, sending her and her ship to 540 GD.
Addie landed her ship in a junkyard belonging to Baron Potter, who convinced Addie to tell him the whole unfiltered truth before he would tell her where to find Marcel. Satisfied with her answer, he directed her to the bus stop near his house, and told her which bus to take.
On the bus, she sat next to Frank Lawrence, and had this conversation with him.
After that, Addie reached Goldenrod Avenue, where she ran into Bryph Glare, Jutse Aldwyn, and Arcturus Ansel.
Addie is an optimistic and generally cheerful person who is quick to turn to violence if she thinks she's being threatened or challenged. She's somewhat aware that her combative nature is off-putting, so she will often apologize immediately after realizing she's threatened someone.
Addie is impulsive. She has trouble picking up on social cues and will often act without considering the social consequences. However, people are generally somewhat forgiving towards her because of her tendency to apologize for her actions almost immediately after taking them, and the fact that she is rarely violent or destructive. Addie will make casual observations about people without realizing that these observations are potentially offensive (for example, calling Jutse short, or calling Marcel a giant).
She is fairly open about her feelings and desires, and will usually answer difficult personal questions with unexpected ease and quickness.
Addie is 6'6“ and fairly muscular. She has wavy bright blue hair, vivid violet eyes, and the color pattern of a platinum fox. Her outfits vary, but she always wears a pair of gold-rimmed pince-nez glasses with the lenses removed, which bear a simple design featuring a single flower petal pointing upward, and a single leaf pointing downward on each side of the frames. She prefers clothes with stretchy fabric which enables a wide range of motion, and shoes with long heels.
Addie has unparalleled endurance. Her body is essentially at peak physical fitness. Additionally, she can regenerate from wounds thousands of times faster than normal, and she can also recover from wounds that would usually be permanent (for example, a lost limb or eye).
However, her accelerated regeneration uses her body's fat as fuel, and if there is not enough on her body to regenerate the wound fully, regeneration stops until she is able to eat something with a high fat content.
Her heart is capable of reaching 20,000 bpm in order to rapidly metabolize food and heal her body at these accelerated rates.
The most calorie dense type of food she's capable of digesting is olive oil. She usually takes several gallons with her, which she drinks in rapid succession if she has lost a limb or otherwise sustained extreme injuries.
She hates the taste of olive oil and drinking it gives her a terrible stomachache, but it's extremely effective at fueling her regeneration, so she ignores it.
Addie knows a style of sword-fighting called ”non-spatial swordplay“. This allows her to place the actual effect of her slice somewhere other than where she is actually swinging her sword and also rotate the direction of the attack around an axis parallel to the line between the attack and the axis of rotation, provided the distance of the slice from the axis of rotation is the same, and that the distance of the slash is the same. For example, she can slice downward directly at her right side, and have the slash appear in front of her from left to right. If something is in the way of the sword's “real” path, the sword will pass through it as though it is not real. If something is in the way of the sword's “altered” path, it will be cut if it can be cut.
This ability allows Addie to ignore obstacles between her and a place she is trying to cut. For example, if there is a rope on the other side of a wall, and Addie slashes at her side with the altered path being in front of her, the slice will appear on the other side of the wall even though Addie cannot directly reach it.
This ability is extremely mentally taxing for Addie, and so she can only use it for short bursts of five seconds, with three swings at most being rotated and translated. She gets temporarily blurred vision if she tries to go beyond that.
Addie has the ability to take multiple courses of action simultaneously. Up to nine simultaneous courses of action can be taken, and these courses of action can last up to thirty seconds total.
For example, if she is swinging her sword, she can split the path of the sword along nine similar yet separate trajectories in order to make up to nine cuts with one swing. She cannot use this ability at the same time as her non-spatial swordplay, or NSS.
Another possible use is to split her entire body in order to do two things at the same time. Though the total duration of all actions may be up to thirty seconds, in practice the actual duration of the ability can only be up to fifteen, since the least amount of simultaneous courses is two.
If she is unable to re-merge her body at the end of her time limit, each segment of her body loses half of its mass, randomly. This can mean lost limbs, half of her head missing, her entire body being perforated with large holes, or any other manner of grievous injury. This is a potentially deadly consequence, so splitting her entire body is an exceptionally risky maneuver, since her regeneration relies on her body's organs being mostly intact.
Addie is an internal magic user whose magic specialty is in speed-enhancing magic.