Nico is a Mercurian biologist currently stationed at the Reginald Erlenmeyer Memorial Research Facility, just east of Titan Garden's glittering E-District. She is, at her core, an insatiably curious person, driven to find thread-ends whose frayed leads seem to match, to tie them together and see what elegant lines they might be hiding in their wholeness. She is a puzzle-solver, looking to steer her energies towards elusive truths that could benefit the broader Solar community. She strives to enrich the lives of starfarers she travels the celestial sea with, but she sometimes finds being immersed in their company to be a little difficult- she is somewhat reserved, a bit shy to directly engage with too many people all at once. It's easiest to reach out to those few who have earned her trust and slowly work outwards from there. In a way Nico is a bit like a gardener, happiest when she is alone with her work, cultivating the bouquet of offerings that might make someone else's life a little brighter, a little easier. Like a flower among that same garden, it takes her a little bit of time to bloom, but when she feels ready to open up her colors are a privilege to behold. She lives in a little third-floor loft in the west end of the A-District, out near the cybernetics clinics, just around the corner from a lovely Callistan restaurant. She tends to work nights at the REM, left in peace to pursue her research with the skeleton crew of coffee-stirring oddballs who prefer the third shift to the tedious bustle of the daytime crowd. When she's not working she likes to tune into Titan's underground music scene, following local record shops for new releases and leaving the S.L.U.D.G.E. Network on her radio while she's enjoying the pleasant sanctity of her home. She is, also, a vampire.
Working at the REM, Nico's speciaization is evolutionary biology, studying the myriad of life in the Sol system to understand the ways in which we are all interconnected. In species with similar traits, did multiple lifeforms converge onto similar solutions to an evolutionary problem, or did they diverge into different interpretations of that solution from a common ancestor? Being Mercurian and growing up among the many variations of the Inner Belt Hominid, Nico understands that evolutionary adaptation can express itself in ways that are, at times, difficult to explain, but if they can be written down and understood they can provide a roadmap to help create balms and medicines that can provide needed relief in a system that can be cold and unyieldingly harsh. By studying our evolutionary journeys, by charting the winding roads our ancestors walked, Nico believes that we can find deeper commonality than the physiological distinctions that separate us into our species. And by better understanding our commonality, her peers will be able to develop more effective medicines that treat more people more effectively. A Caelian starferer and a Martian starfarer have different biological needs, and might require different medical treatment for similar medical ailments; for a crew in transit aboard a starship, this is a fundamental consideration for the ship's doctor to prepare for. Our bodies are all different, and medicines are imperfect, but with a richer understanding of our biological origins- of where we converge, where we diverge, where we intersect and run parallel- new treatments and new medical discoveries could yet be made that can bridge the gaps between us and allow the scattering of little lives spread like stardust throughout the vastness of space to more widely benefit from more shared forms of relief. We could have medicines that work for most species, and maybe someday beyond that we can have the understanding to develop medicines that help all species; it's ambitious work, but it would address a need that the everyday starfarer doesn't think too hard about until they find themselves in the sick bay. Nico's work at the REM keeps her busy, but when her garden comes to bloom, it will make everyone's journey around Sol that little bit easier.
Being a Mercurian, Nico is one of the rare few of her kind to be afflicted with a Curse of Sol, or a gift that is potent in a way that tends to lead its bearer towards calamity. For Nico, Sol has graced her with the purview of Probability, or the ability to see the weight of chance imbued in a deliberate action, decision or intersection of events. She describes this vision as seeing bubbles rising within the viscosity of a physical space or an object- the closer towards certainty a state of being is, the slower the "bubbles" within it move. The probability of a door swinging open to bonk you in the face while you're walking along the sidewalk is low, but not impossible; Nico can see her bubbles slow down in the space in front of that door in the moments before another person intends to push it open in a hurry, and although there is the chance that someone inside might call out to that person to cause them to pause for a moment, she can see that the odds are something significant is likely to happen there. Similarly, when holding a set of dice in her hand, she can see the thickness of probability coalesce around a particular side, knowing in advance how they are likely to roll. When Nico is in her Firewalker form she's able to control, distribute, thicken or thin the viscosity of chance at her whims, increasing or decreasing the likelihood of a specific outcome from occurring, so long as the events leading up to that particular outcome have sufficient momentum to slow her bubbles down. Neighbors she grew up with in her home village in the tunnels of Mercury have drawn parallels between her Curse and another prominent Curse carried by one of the more infamous daughters of Sol; one of her elders describing her gift as having influence over the flow of what is, rather than meddling in the multitudes of what could be, and should she ever meet one of the Mercurians whose gifts are in parallel with her own, she has a million questions she'd love to ask, once she musters the confidence to ask them. It is a powerful gift to hold sway over the weaving of the thread in which you, personally, exist, so it is a bit of a shame that Nico has had her connection to that thread severed by her vampiric affliction.
Life as a vampire is complicated. People have carried the affliction for centuries, but it's not widely known to be a real thing you can contract, today, here and now, which can be partly explained by the way people who become infected are driven away from the warmth of their societies. It's not scientifically documented, it is a disease whose history is etched in folklore and myth more than in historical or medical texts. It seems to be a disease, which means there could be a way to treat it that doesn't involve fear or violence or wooden stakes or arcane Terran symbols, so as you can imagine there's not a whole lot of existing data for a night-shift lab critter to work with. While she wasn't a vampire when she initially pursued the study of evolutionary biology, Nico's years of research have since come to serve a secondary, ulterior motive: she would very much like to understand how vampiric infection works, how it alters its host and, ultimately, how those alterations can be reversed. By researching evolutionary parallels in other biological ecosystems she hopes to find clues that could lead her to a thread to pull within her own vampiric study, and by framing vampirism as an affliction rather than a personal fault she hopes that she could someday present her findings to the broader interplanetary medical community in a way that won't freak them all out and cause a panic at discovering they're talking to a vampire.
So, you know, you've met your first vampire, you're probably dying to ask the obvious question: "Huh??" Lucky for you, Nico is a studious note-taker! Her research isn't quite ready for a grand public debut, but a brief summary can help you understand where she is in her journey of documenting the forbidding and unknown truths behind the nightwalker. Since she grew up on Mercury, she's familiar with the old lore. Here's a few bullet points from Nico's records:
- Vampirism is likely a mutation of an older Mercurian disease from deep in the lower tunnels that somehow broke containment at an unknown point in history. It can infect any and every organic lifeform in the Sol system. Only Androids are immune.
- Those afflicted by this root disease no longer breathe, they have no pulse and their aging appears to halt. Their bodies no longer mend, and they bear old wounds indefinitely. It is a state of being likened to death, but they retain consciousness and sapient thought.
- Hinting at its Mercurian evolutionary origin, the manifestation of its traits tend to reflect Mercurian people's adaptive traits, even as they manifest in other species. A dull, blood-red color overtakes the iris of the afflicted, and a set of sharp canines grow where applicable.
- Homeworld folklore describes the root disease as a "rejection of Sol," an inversion of the natural state of Mercurian life that drives the afflicted into the deepest, darkest tunnels of their planet. Those afflicted are so reviled by Sol that they are burned to ash in its sight.
- As their pulse stops and they are driven from Sol's light, those afflicted are compelled by a persistent thirst for blood, seeking a deeply Mercurian warmth that has been taken from them.
- Being a rejection of Sol, along with the loss of their lumious ember irises, so too does an afflicted Mercurian lose access to their Gift.
That last point stings especially sharply for Nico. Since becoming a vampire Nico has lost her bubbles, she can't see probability anymore, and she can't Firewalk to influence them either. Being connected to Sol is a fundamental aspect of Mercurian life, and losing that connection kinda sucks, to be honest! It's a part of that cold feeling that would drive the old afflicted to seek sun-warmed blood to fill their insides. Curiously, what Nico has is not the old illness, it's not the old Mercurian strain that would cast the benighted into the depths of the darkest tunnels. Somewhere, somehow, the virus evolved, it became something new. And as it evolved, the new interplanetary vampiric condition has developed a few beneficial qualities to offset the harrowing chill of banishment from Sol's light:
- Vampires afflicted with the interplanetary strain exhibit feats of physical strength at the upper boundaries of their species natural range of potential power. They are, essentially, as strong as their species can be.
- This strength also expresses itself as an uncanny capacity for speed, becoming capable of moving faster than should be physically possible. It is the biologist's belief that these are evolutionary traits that enable a vampire to hunt more efficiently.
- It is also the biologist's experience that using their speed does not grant them freedom from momentum. It takes skill and practice to make sharp turns or perform serpentine movement while moving at extreme speeds. A vampire will still bonk into a wall if they are not careful.
- Drinking blood does not strictly sate a desire for warmth. Vampires obtain a range of new abilities depending on the type of blood they drink.
According to Nico's theory, the interplanetary mutation that produced the strain of vampirism she currently has is rooted in an old Mercurian illness that was described as an "inversion" of Sol's favor. In its current evolutionary branch, the virus appears to also grant an inversion of Mercurian Gifts as well, and it grants it to vampires of all kinds. Every species' blood carries with it some innate element of that species' own evolutionary adaptations, and when a vampire of any species drinks it, they earn an inverted gift of their own. Nico has personally sampled tasty little sippies of a wide variety of blood types, sourced from the REM's own phlebotomy lab. This is strictly an exercise in academic curiosity- she does not enjoy that it's something she has to do, and if she could stop she would love to not need to do it, but as a biologist the first-hand data is too important not to experience and document. She's tried a full range of blood types, individually and without overlap, and she's dutifully arranged her findings in her secret files.
- Vampires can retain a limited number of different bloodtype powers for a limited amount of time. Effects seem to wear off when the body absorbs what it needs from the blood over the course of a Terran week for the biologist, but a younger peer reports his effects last for only the length of a weekend.
- In line with the biologist's theories of evolutionary origin, drinking Mercurian blood allows a vampire to walk in sunlight again, returning to Sol's embrace once more.
- Additionally, for Mercurian vampires specifically, regaining access to living Mercurian blood will reignite their own Gift, their ability to Firewalk and will restore their red irises to a proper luminous orange glow. They do not inherit the Gift from the Mercurian whose blood they drink, it is a reignition of their own, which might explain why this trait does not manifest in species who do not have one to begin with.
- Drinking Venusian blood grants a vampire regenerative properties, allowing them to quickly heal wounds and regenerate lost body parts. Vampiric bodies to not typically mend on their own, so this one is particularly useful.
- As with Mercurians, a Venusian vampire can use their regenerative properties to re-grow their Carapace forms. The biologist has witnessed her peer demonstrate this effect second-hand.
- Terran blood, curiously, offers no unique adaptive trait on its own. Upon further study, Terran blood appears to act as a medium for multiple other bloodtype effects to manifest concurrently. A young control subject exhibited a capacity for holding two bloodtype powers within a dose of Terran blood, while the biologist reports a capacity to hold four.
- Consuming Martian blood appears to grant a restoration of metabolic and organic system functions. In restoring breath and heartbeat alike, Martian blood appears to alleviate the death-like symptoms of vampirism, granting a vampire the appearance of life. Like Venusian blood, Martian blood can also restore natural blood clotting and wound-mending properties, but more extreme regenerate traits are not replicated.
- With functioning internal systems, the biologist presumes that a Martian vampire could once again control these now-working systems as normal. Evidence of this has not presently been recorded.
Nico has made note in her records that there seems to be a distinction between Inner Belt and Outer Belt bloodtype powers. Where Inner Belt blood seems to be restorative of the natural qualities most directly impacted by vampiric affliction, Outer Belt blood allows much more extreme adaptive mutations to manifest. Due to the evolutionary traits of Outer Belt species, it is presumed that a vampire attempting to latch on and bite into any given species would have a more difficult time than they would feeding from an Inner Belt species, which may have served to help to limit the spread of vampirism beyond the Asteroid Belt, but only to a minor degree.
- Callistan blood imbues a vampire with tremendous strength, surpassing the upper boundaries of their own species' physical limitations. Reports have been heard of vampires breaking walls or bending steel bars. It is an extreme manifestation. The biologist does not imagine extended quills to be a fun defensive trait to deal with.
- Seemingly drawing from Europan life at deep-sea atmospheric pressures, Europan blood grants a vampire a heightened physical constitution. Imbuement allows a vampire to withstand tremendous crushing force without injury. Walking along a sea floor and surviving impact from a speeding vehicle have been recorded as manifestations of this bloodtype, although cutting one's finger will still draw blood. The biologist does not know how a hunting vampire might easily access this blood type from outside a Europan EVO suit.
- Perhaps the most curious of the lot, Ganymedean internal moisture does "count" as blood. Drinking Ganymedean juice allows a vampire to generate corrosive, digestive fluid from their hands. The biologist theorizes this is an adaptation of their own sweat glands or similar, and has recorded this power as being sufficient to corrode metal bars. A peer has reported that Ganymedeans are "tough, and really hard to bite into".
- Caelian jelly fluid adapts a vampire's nervous system to allow them to generate strong electrical pulses. The young peer was able to manifest a small jolt, where the biologist found herself able to power an electronic appliance by holding the plug. The peer describes piercing a Caelian membrane as "like biting into a garden hose," and both parties describe the taste of Caelian jelly fluid as being salty and extremely unappealing, but no less satiating.
- Neptunian blood, Zephyleer. Drinking this bloodtype allows a vampire to sink into solid surfaces, seemingly useful for hiding from Sol's displeasure when more sufficient shelter is unavailable. The young peer exhibits an ability to merge into dirt or wood, where the biologist has shown an ability to sink into rock, but not steel. She theorizes that with age even steel could be accessed.
- Neptunian blood, Medileer. In defiance of physics, drinking this bloodtype grants a vampire the power of flight. As above, the young peer was able to float in the air, whereas the biologist could fly with some respectable amount of speed. She theorizes that with age a vampire could travel through the air at dangerous velocities, and advises that future vampires remember to wear a helmet before practicing how to control this particular power.
- In addition to blood from sapient species, drinking blood from various animals from various worlds, by evidence of experience, appears to allow a vampire to communicate intuitively with that type of animal, and even assume the animal's physical form themselves, transforming to that shape and back again. The biologist has tested a range of pre-drawn animal blood obtained from the REM and found that the power manifests regardless of world origin of host species. The biologist has registered a particular enjoyment for bats.
Between the old lore of Mercury's dark undertunnels and the present, lived experience of contracting the virus herself, Nico believes the latter is almost certainly an offshoot of the former. Other vampires are remarkably hard to find, as one can't simply go around asking if they've "seen a vampire" before, although the discovery of one newly-afflicted peer in Titan Garden implies there are others already living within the space colony. And while Nico is using the resources of the Reginald Erlenmeyer Memorial Research Facility to further her studies of vampirism, of its origins and the possibilities of a cure, she has to do so clandestinely, as losing access to the REM would be a huge setback to her work. She juggles this research with projects that her supervisors request of her, and when she works with other team members she tends to keep an eye out for who seems trustworthy, who she might be able to confide in to share in her lonesone cultivation of her secret evolutionary garden.
It turns out she's not alone in the REM! Late one night, while moving a pile of equipment in the biology lab, Nico discovered one of her peers- a translucent green xenobiologist named Colette- had been sleeping in a sample canister! It was far later at night than Colette expected to be awakened, and she seemed to miss her train home, so after a bit of tea she decided to stay and help Nico with her assignments. Colette seemed to be an expert in uncharted biological systems, which was an area Nico had been exploring to find parallels she can use to reference against her own viral evolutionary theories- after a few more nights working together the two would become friends, and Nico felt comfortable sharing her situation with Colette. The green lady was very warm and accommodating about the whole vampire thing. Maybe not actually having blood herself put her at ease, but whatever the reason she never made a fuss about it, and agreed to keep Nico's work a secret from the department heads. Nico had mentioned needing to study extant biological systems in uninhabited corners of the Sol system, and Colette recommended Nico look into the REM's starship commission program to find a good, trustworthy crew to work with if she was planning to leave Titan Garden on her own.
Rather than fielding a fleet of expensive starships itself, when research requires a scientist to leave its space station the REM offers staff a stipend to commission starship travel from the local outfits working in Titan Garden- there are plenty of them to choose from, and they have many specializations to offer. The REM offers a curated shortlist of trusted starship crews; Colette mentions that she often contracts with Red Raven Towing & Salvage in order to explore the moons of Saturn or venture out into deep space to conduct careful research on migratory xenofauna. She says that while the crew is friendly and reliable, they tend to be a bit busy with a lot of projects. Nico's research isn't ready for wider public awareness, so discretion is important in choosing a pilot. Colette mentions that while she was at the Red Raven office, she did encounter another starfarer who is a bit of an unorthodox choice but who might be the kind of pilot Nico is looking for. Red Raven have a friend they collaborate with, a Terran named Zan who is the sole owner-operator of the Rusty Rabbit "Second Chance" Recycling Company. Rusty Rabbit's hangar is just down the way from Red Raven's, and while Zan tends to deploy their Steelframe with Red Raven's own Jackrabbit II, Zan does have a starship of their own for transporting Stardiver to and from freelance job sites. A "Second Chance" seems like just the thing an industrious vampire needed, Colette mused; maybe they might be worth looking into to help study the systems Nico is looking for across the uncolonized wilds of the Outer Belt?
It wasn't a bad idea- a one-person team could keep a better secret than a crew of nine or ten. Nico punched a straw into one of the pouches of blood she'd warmed up from the cooler, labeled "BAT, TERRA, 2389" along the outside. The Rusty Rabbit... she took a sip and mulled it over. Heck, it was worth a shot!