P/E!Wis's story - the long version 🩵
Wis's mother Clara died while she was very young, from a brutal infection stemming from an injury she sustained when she and Wis's father Maurice were out on a wildlife expedition. It shook Wis and her father, and eventually he would leave entirely, to live out the adventures that Clara always wanted, and because he was lost and terrified of having to raise Wis on his own.
Wis was left in the care of her Aunt Kendra, and neither was particularly pleased with Maurice's actions. His endless thirst for adventure and thrill came at the expense of his own damn daughter. He didn't even pass on the story of Wis's origins on as he was instructed to by V5!Wis and the researcher that found the clones.
At the very least, Kendra was a kind and understanding guardian for Wis. She was also the one that told Wis about her origin story, from what she heard from Wis's pa. Wis often thinks that without Kendra's guidance and gentle but firm sense of discipline, she would've been much worse off.
Throughout her teenage years, she drifted along without much of a direction. Her only true motivation was to not turn out like her father was. But anything more specific than that, she had no idea. Kendra suggested that Wis try out building, and without much else to do, she agreed and started receiving some basic training from the sole builder in her village, who was delighted to take an apprentice.
However, mere months into her training, there came sudden news. Maurice had written to her after nearly a decade, with barely an apology, and news that he had bequeathed an old workshop in Portia to her. Wis was hesitant to take it at first, but both her mentor and Kendra encouraged her to do it. She could learn on the job, and there were other builders in Portia. Sure, her pa might've been the one to give it to her, but she could make it truly her own.
That was what ultimately had Wis on a boat to Portia, uncertain but thrumming with anticipation for a place other than Barnarock. She initially isolated herself when she first came to Portia, putting 110% into learning building pretty much all by herself and not knowing who to trust.
Perhaps to everyone's surprise, including her own, the person who got Wis to open up a little bit in those first few weeks...was Higgins. Wis thought that he could potentially teach her to help fill in the gaps in her training, but he immediately called her a twerp and thought that she was only sitting pretty on inheritance...despite her house clearly being a worn-out shack. But instead of being completely offended, Wis found it...a little funny, if she was being honest. If Higgins thought she was a twerp, then she'd be a twerp, alright. They'd constantly jabber with each other when they saw each other on the street. They'd always run into the Commerce Guild first thing in the morning, pushing and shoving to get the best commissions. They'd spar all the time, and sometimes it'd go a bit too far.
Gradually though, as they come to learn about each other's poor lots in life, they become less and less vitriolic, and by the end, their friendship is nigh-inseparable.
Through her efforts to help develop the little town of Portia, and the encouragement and kindness of the locals, Wis gradually opens herself up a lot more to trusting and bonding with people. She'd hardly had anyone quite like the Portian community at all in her life, but it was welcome after years of drifting in self-imposed isolation.
When Mint first arrived in town, he couldn't stop looking at Wis suspiciously. He already seemed to know who she was before she even introduced herself too. He'd just come from Sandrock...and wasn't she just over there??
As it turned out, there was another clone in Sandrock, Wisteria Cyprens! A builder, just like her, albeit far more experienced. Mint sent a letter to his Sandrocker friend Qi about the mysterious second Wis, and both clones were delighted at their absolute bewilderment. They quickly got in touch, and P!Wis took a break for a week or two to visit Sandrock.
She and S!Wis hit it off fairly quickly, with S!Wis jumping at the opportunity to teach P!Wis some tips and tricks of the trade. While she had a lot of fun, P!Wis couldn't help but feel a sense of jealousy as she talked more with her clone sister. S!Wis seemed to have everything she didn't. Both parents still alive and present in her life, an extended family back in Highwind, a determined direction for her life in building, a proper education, and plenty of prior experience. She did her best to sympathize with P!Wis, but from the very start, P!Wis sensed that there would always be a gap between them, even if it was incredibly small.
Regardless, she remained in regular contact with S!Wis, even after she went home. It was nice, having a penpal and arguably a whole new sister.
The Rogue Knight's attack on Portia took place only a week or so after Duvos's Invasion of Sandrock. She was one of the first to reach out to S!Wis and ask if she was truly okay. She eventually paid Sandrock another visit for them to talk over their experiences, joined by D!Wis and later interrupted by T!Wis. Once again, it seemed like P!Wis and S!Wis deviated. While S!Wis's experiences solidified her resolve to stick to her original objective of settling down in Sandrock without much fuss, P!Wis's experiences stirred her in a strange way.
Somehow...she found herself craving something with the magnitude of the Rogue Knight and the subsequent aftermath again. Rising up to the challenge. Proving her name. Out of respect for S!Wis though, she said none of this out loud. Once again, she felt that gap between them. Would it ever truly close?
While Higgins might have been the first to bring Wis out of her shell, the mild-mannered Dr. Xu ended up being the one who do so the most. Being as inexperienced a builder as she was, Wis found herself getting injured a fair amount from machines and fatigue and combat. Mostly minor, but still enough to warrant a doctor's look.
She was generally very aloof during the first several meetings with Xu and Phyllis. Just there to do her business. In and out. Xu wasn't a very nosy man. Patient confidentiality and all. But when he met P!Wis, and heard the rumblings of her stoic, solitary nature from others around town, he couldn't help but be curious. And when he learned about what happened with her pa and why she was in Portia to begin with, he saw someone in need of healing. Unfortunately, maybe not the kind of healing he could do. He was only a physician, not a psychologist.
Even so, he made efforts to make her feel safe and welcome whenever she had to come into the clinic, and gradually, she responded positively, much to his delight. Slowly, Wis developed light-hearted, bantering friendships with Xu and Phyllis, and soon she found herself visiting them just because.
Xu eventually started catching feelings...though he probably at least had a hint of a crush on Wis from the very beginning. It never really hit him until one day, Phyllis came to him with a cheeky look and what would've been a simple piece of news: Wis switched her primary doctor to Phyllis. She said that she'd be more comfortable with Phyllis...partly because she was growing closer with Xu. She didn't want the doctor-patient relationship to interfere with their personal one.
With such a large restriction suddenly removed...everything kind of slid into place all at once. In an ideal world, he'd be able to heal her completely, but even if he can't, he'll still bandage all her physical wounds with care...and help her be happy. Comfortable. To see her smile and laugh and truly be at ease from whatever was eating at her from the inside.
Wis had never felt as safe as she did around Xu. He was grounded, just the right amount of silly, and he truly cared for people even outside his profession. She felt comfortable telling him just about anything. Soon enough, she didn't just see him as a friend anymore. One afternoon, they hung out on Amber Island the whole afternoon, walking and talking, staying far longer than either of them had intended. As the sun set over the horizon and the stars peeked out, they fell silent.
Until Xu took the first step, nervously confessing how he felt for her. Wis suddenly felt her mind freeze up. She felt strongly for him too...but a part of her instinctively wanted to push that away. Self-defense. If he got too close, it'd only be worse if he left her. She was honest; telling him about that conflict. He assured her that they could take things as slowly as they needed to, and that he had no plans on leaving anytime soon, not her, not Portia. And so began their relationship, shy and tenuous, but filled with understanding and warmth.
The true test of their bond would come when Xu expressed a desire for going to Seesai for a while to further his medical studies. How long? Neither of them knew. Wis was immediately nervous. This was it, wasn't it?! This was the part where he'd leave her and never come back. He very adamantly assured her that a) he wasn't leaving right away, b) he would NOT be away forever (he'd miss her and Portia too much for that), and c) they could always write to each other in the meantime!
Over the next several months before Xu planned to take his trip, the couple did the best they could to prepare themselves emotionally to be away from each other for an indefinite amount of time. They still had their dates, of course. But they also started making and doing more things for each other. Wis built Xu some equipment that he might need, and gave him diagrams for bigger things that he couldn't carry. Xu prepared more herbs and medicines for Wis and taught her some recipes so she could treat her own injuries more. They practiced being alone in smaller doses, with one of them heading out to another city for a while to work with colleagues or to sightsee. And finally, Xu planted a small garden for Wis, filled with beautiful herbal flowers that blossomed under the light of the full moon: moonlight primrose. Even while they were apart, they could always go out at night and look at the same moon, its soft light uniting them indirectly. With their thorough preparation and their constant, unwavering care for one another...they made it through the entire time just fine.
One day, a while after the Rogue Knight's attack and Wis and Xu's marriage, Xu rose early for work, kissing his still sleeping wife on the cheek as he left. He opened the door...and was greeted by a man asking for his daughter. With a jolt, Xu realized right away that this was Wis's estranged father. He did his best to be civil with him, but Wis was definitely not feeling the same. As soon as she got up and went outside, she was just shy of throwing hands, had it not been for Xu standing right next to her, and the scrap of restraint that she had.
Maurice was on a break from his adventures in the Peripheries, and he wanted to check in on his daughter, pleased to find both her and her old workshop flourishing. Wis was only able to bite out an obligatory thank you for giving the property to her, though she made it incredibly clear that it was barely a gift at all by itself. When she got it, it was overgrown, dilapidated, and she had to fix everything herself.
Their subsequent build-off was no less strained. Wis only agreed to get Maurice out of her hair. With how he never contacted her more than one in over a decade, this competition was nowhere near friendly. The gift of the pig automation that Maurice created was hardly a decent prize, either. It seemed like the only thing that Maurice could offer his own daughter in recompense was a few material goods. Soon after, he departed Portia without a word, seeing as he was no longer welcome, nor was Wis ever willing to forgive him. But not before catching Wis's stony expression from the fields one final time as he boarded his ship.
Wis never ended up using the robopig for its intended purpose. It could never really fly that far anyways. It gathered dust for a while behind her house, before she and S!Wis would team up to repurpose it into a gardening bot to help her out with her new postgame hobby. Once again, carving out her own mark, in spite of it originally being handed to her by her father.
Wis's call to adventure will lead her to becoming the governor of Evershine! Despite the doubts of a bunch of her clone sisters, who could all see the Alliance's ulterior motives of creating a new city state near the hostile border, she decided that this was truly what she wanted. Just like her workshop in Portia, just like her robopig, she'd make her new office as governor and her new home her own.
It took some persuasion to get Xu to come along. He was planning on spending the rest of his life in Portia, and thought that Wis would do the same. By this time, I think that Portia would have grown a bit population wise, and Phyllis becomes a fully realized doctor and takes students of her own. So Portia's in good hands, while this new settlement could use another skilled doctor to help people out. That's what convinces him eventually.
What will Wis get up to in MTAE? We'll have to see. Since she's going to be the player character, she has the least amount of things set in stone right now for what her future story is going to be. I want to see how things play out in the game and craft a narrative around that as best I can.
Although...one thing that I can say is that Wis will definitely have to contend with the fact that she left Portia behind, possibly for good. Even if she's staying in contact with everyone there, doesn't that make her just like her father? Always seeking out thrills, at the expense of her loved ones.
But she's better than that...right?
