Gather round, kids, for another installment of me tormenting characters I claim to love! Today’s lucky candidate: Dozza!
As mentioned, I really love Dozza’s character and backstory, but beyond those I haven’t actually done anything with her yet that I haven’t since had to retcon for reasons. I wanted to fix that, and I wanted more weavers, so the logical solution was to combine the two. Behold:
As we know, Dozza is the kid of a pair of high-ranking Inquest asura. The couple, next to vast amounts of influence and money, also has a wealth of enemies and rivals, outside as well as inside the Inquest. One such individual is Blexx, a rival of the same rank as themselves. Blexx has recently been researching the prospect of boosting people’s magical power with ley energy in a safe (read: does not violate extremely loose Inquest regulations) manner, for which he needs... volunteers. He happens to learn about Dozza being the daughter of his rivals, working quite a few tiers of hierarchy below him, and you can guess where that leads - Dozza gets an invitation to Blexx’s lab (she has likely been warned about the guy by her parents at some point, but it’s not like she can decline anyway).
Shortly after her arrival, surprise surprise, she’s restrained, taken to an experiment chamber with minimal explanation and blasted with Blexx’s experimental LeyBooster™. Observing that she has not disintegrated, Blexx enters the chamber to present a triumphant monologue about his ingenius invention, and how he has given Dozza a unique opportunity to surpass all her peers with her magic, and how she’s now indebted to him for this glorious gift. He removes the confused Dozza’s restraints and encourages her to try out her enhanced abilities. Aaaand Dozza proceeds to immediately lose control over her magic and consequently go into a panic.
As you can imagine, comforting/calming down someone is not Blexx’s forte. Dozza only gets more riled up by his efforts, which in turn causes her uncontrolled magic to surge even stronger. Blexx orders his goons to re-restrain her, but she knocks them out, so he attempts to do it himself. This pushes Dozza over the edge and she releases a tremendous blast of combined elemental magic. When the dust settles, Blexx is stuck to the opposite wall - impaled through the chest by a massive ice spike, as well as electrocuted and slightly charred.
Now, Dozza may be Inquest scum, but she’s a very small, very simple cog in the machine, quite disinterested in the megakrewe’s “noble” goals, profoundly unfond of torture (and being tortured) and abhorred by murder. Except now she has accidentally killed someone, and not just anyone at that, but an Inquest kingpin, which is extremely likely to result in her becoming the recipient of lots of torture and murder (not to mention a generous helping of crippling guilt and psychological trauma, should she escape the former). Scrambling out of the chamber in a continuing panic, she eventually stumbles on an asura gate. Hacking into it, she sets it to the first destination she can find, not even checking what that is.
It’s Fahranur.
Yep, Dozza runs from the impending Inquest pursuit into the arms of Inquest Awakened. She manages to scramble up onto a high place where they can’t reach her. Soon, however, she hears fighting from an adjacent chamber, and then a group of living people enter. She throws herself at them in gratitude for being rescued - eeeexcept the group turns out to be led by Commander Nouru. Commander Nouru, who notoriously hates Inquest. Commander Nouru, who is currently beyond pissed and nervous because of Taimi being in danger. So yeah, she of course assumes Dozza works there and presses her for information, in a not very kind manner. Dozza immediately breaks down crying. Nouru soon gives up because she doesn’t have time for this. As the group presses on, Dozza opts for following them as she’d rather be metaphorically eaten alive by the Commander than be literally eaten alive by Awakened.
After they get out of Fahranur, Nouru enlists the help of Ecnilios to try and interrogate Dozza once more, but the mesmer reveals that she indeed knows nothing relevant to the Fahranur facility. Having no further use for her, they release her.
And there you have it: Dozza is now alone in a foreign land, with augmented and uncontrollable magic, as well as fresh and crispy trauma from committing manslaughter, being almost killed by Awakened and meeting the terrifying Commander in a particularly bad mood. Oh, and she’s also cut off from the organisation that she had been part of throughout her life, and that is now also most probably actively hunting her for killing Blexx, by the way. Fun times :-)
Final notes:
- Apparently I’m unable to keep my characters in the Inquest. Three out of three who had ever been members are not anymore lmao
- The “gauntlets” are basically a magical tic. Ice and lightning-charged crystals start building up all over Dozza’s hands and lower arms as soon as she gets even a little bit nervous (which means they’re permanently there for now, for obvious reasons).
- I know Dozza is -legionnaire voice- criminal scum, but she needs friends and hugs. And therapy. (She will already get a sort of friend in the person of Linda’s Znuffu - which is gonna be interesting considering Znuffu also hates Inquest.)
As mentioned, I made Dozza into a weaver, and gave her a new story arc and an updated look to go with it. I will post about the story arc later, for now you can just look at how adorable she is with this hairstyle ;-; Let me just say - those “gauntlets“ aren’t a fancy accessory. She won’t be having a good time.
well I love it now because of the ten billion cool attacks and i need more weavers who use different weapons
I’ve been eyeing Dozza... like what if I did something Bad to her to unlock a greater magic potential lmao
also i don’t like that she’s just collecting dust as I really like her character... I’m sorry my child but you will probably suffer in the name of progress
