remade an old one shot OC cuz i got invited to a game of dnd with my bf and his friends and needed a character for their waterworld universe and lemme just say
i'm am loving her now <3
she's such a fucking pain to draw but y'all can still expect more of her

and now, storytime:

Quill comes from an isolated people originating from what once was Florida's most southern tip, a people that's avoided any sort of contact or interaction with the outside world for longer than anyone can remember.

Their most sophisticated attribute is their leadership, as they're led by a democratically elected ”Mah-Yor”, a title they ”inherited” from the old days. Other than that they're rather primitive in their ways, they have no currency system and shares their resources by trading. They don't have a set class system, but hunters are generally more respected than farmers.

They simply call themselves ”The New People”, and lives in divided tribes. The tribes generally don't interact with each other, in fact many of them are territorial and attacks any and all outsiders encountered within their territory.

But they all, apart from one tribe, have the same god:

The Great White Lionfish. (these people are also amazing with names)

According to legend, in the days after the apocalypse a large group of survivors were stranded on a bunch of makeshift rafts tied together into a manmade, rickety island. Exposed, the survivors' numbers dwindled as they were daily exposed to the harsh sun and the brutal open water storms, and not to mention the starvation and thirst. Feeding on nothing but unfortunate seabirds, turtles and fish, and drinking the animals' blood in an effort to stay hydrated.

But one day, they noticed something odd in the endless waters: what appeared to be a lionfish began to swam around the ”island”, but it was unlike any other lionfish ever seen before:

It was about the size of a medium sized great white shark, and was pure white in color.

At first they tried to catch it for food, but any attempt to get close enough to it failed as when they approached, the fish would swim back down into the depths. Only to emerge back to the surface and circulate the raft island once more once the humans left the waters.

Frustration gripped the hunters, and one of them in a stroke of mixed stupidity and genius constructed a sort of makeshift diving bell suit in order to be able to follow the lionfish down.

And his plan somehow worked, but as he followed the albino lionfish down into the depth he began to notice the lionfish's behavior; it wasn't fleeing from him. It was like it was trying to show him something.

The waters turned out to be shallower than expected, and soon the lionfish led the man to a sunken city, to an old skyscraper whose upper floors were found to be intact. And most importantly; unflooded.

The survivors were moved to the skyscraper to get away from the harsh surface world and closer to prey, as they found the city to be full of all sorts of wildlife. Especially the invasive lionfish, which came to be an important game as they not only provided them with meat and skins when detoxified, but their spines could be used when hunting larger prey.

The Great White Lionfish was seen as their savior, and decades came and went it eventually even became to be worshiped as a god.

As generations went on, the humans rapidly began adapting to their new natural environment. Developing flipperlike feet and webbed hands, by the time the old skyscraper collapsed thanks to the merciless ravages of time, the New People had already developed gills and became adept swimmers, skilled kelp and lionfish farmers and fearsome hunters.

Their history also became reflected in their appearance, as their skin and hair got a conspicuous red striped pattern, like the lionfish's, and underneath their clawlike nails they developed venom glands that give them a highly venomous touch, similar to the lionfish's spines.

Apart from hunting being one of their main staples in their society, they have also learned how to farm kelp, and uses it for just about everything: food, clothes, ropes, nets, etc, and many of the tribes even keep and breed lionfish for easy access food and spines.


But that's enough ranting about the People themselves;

Quill comes from the Volitans tribe, one of the smaller tribes, born into a family of kelp farmers as the youngest child in a litter of 10. Already as a young child she had decided to take a more exciting route in life: as a huntress.

She always had an unquenchable thirst for adventure, and would always drag her childhood friend, and future husband, Nori, who in turn was the only son in a hunter family who would've preferred the safer life of a kelp farmer, along on her escapades.

Both her and her Nori grew up to become quite outstanding hunters, a little reluctantly in the timid Nori's case however, but what won't you do for the woman you love?

As a hunter, Quill knows the virtue of patience. She's silent, and fast, hitting hard when her prey's guard is down. If needed to she'll follow her prey around for hours, sometimes days, waiting for the perfect moment to lunge out into the open water and skewer the surprised tuna, swordfish, eel, reef shark, octopus, etc, with her harpoon spear. Often accompanied by Nori if she aim to take something larger down.

Because of their skill, Quill and Nori were one day handpicked to join a party of five hunters by the Mah-Yor, to hunt down a wounded and abandoned young whale which had been spotted near the border of a rivaling tribe, the Radiata.

Despite risking an encounter with the highly aggressive Radiata, the Volitans decided that they'd take a chance at intercepting the wounded whale before it could reach the Radiata territory. And before the Radiata could get to it.

That turned out to be a grave mistake.

Just as they got closer to the border, they were spotted by a Radiata hunting party, also on the hunt for the whale. Despite still being on Volitan territory they decided to eliminate their rivals, and bushwacked the Volitans. Mercilessly slaughtering them, dyeing the water around them red.

Quill watched as her Nori got his throat slashed, and in a fit of rage managed to stab a sharpened piece of clam shell, her primitive knife, into his assailant's throat. Only be overpowered, and soon joined Nori at the bottom of the sea, bleeding profusely from a plethora of stab wounds, bites, broken ribs, and poisoned scratches.

The female Quill stabbed was the only one of the Radiata who fell, and she was left behind with the lifeless bodies of the Volitans as they left, before sharks were drawn to the bloody waters to clean up the Radiata's mess.

But they were arrogant, and sloppy. They forgot to make sure that they all were dead before they left, if they had stayed behind they would've seen Quill slowly rising. Ignoring her wounds as she slowly made her way to Nori's body. She stayed with him, cradling her childhood friend and lover, screaming, crying, cursing his murderers, until the sharks' numbers grew, as they ripped and tore the flesh of Quill's comrades, and the abandoned Radiata, between them. It was just a matter of time before they'd turn their attention to her, especially as her wounds just couldn't seem to stop bleeding.

And not wanting to leave Nori behind for the scavengers, she picked him up and dragged him along. Which only resulted in her moving slower and slower, the bloodloss draining her of all her strength, as well as the toxin spreading in her near empty veins made every kick with her flippers agonizingly painful. Fueled on nothing but her willpower and stubbornness, she kept on swimming. Until even her strong will caved in to the pain, finally collapsing in the middle of an open coral reef. Her trembling, weak body clinging to what was left of her beloved Nori.

She was more dead than alive when she was found by her people and brought back home. Where, against all odds, she eventually recovered and her wounds miraculously healed.

But she wasn't the same Quill as the one who had left for the hunt.

She was never seen smiling, she'd keep to herself and rarely ever spoke to anyone. In her heart raged nothing but hatred and grief, and in her mind existed nothing but thoughts of vengeance.

So as soon as she fully recovered and gave Nori his final rite, she left the tribe. Never to be seen again.

And the very first thing she did was traveling to the Radiata's territory, utilizing all her skills as a hunter she stalked the reefs until she by chance came across the very same party that had ambushed and slain her husband and teammates. With the use of a wounded shark pup, she tricked the Radiata to enter an empty underwater cave as they searched for their potential easy prey, which she then hurried to seal by causing a cave-in.

She wanted the ones who took her everything away from her to suffer, so she let them starve to death in that cave. Standing guard outside to make sure they wouldn't be found, or be able to get out, and refused to leave her post until the hungry sobs and cries for help died out, and the cave became silent. As did her vengeful thoughts.

Ever since then, she's been roaming the vast Abyss. Being the one of the mere handfull of the People to leave their homelands. Over the years in her travels, she's changed even more, almost found a new way of life. Meditation helps her keep focused and to keep her emotions and thoughts in check, as they tend to run wild and out of control after she lost her Nori.

As she's been forced to fight for her life against both monsters and men more than once she's become an adept fighter, relying on both her old trusty harpoon spear, her fists and the poison tipped claws her people are so fond of using at close quarters.

She's a lonewolf mostly keeping to herself and simply watches other people from afar, only interacting with them to do trades and the such. Just dedicating her life to exploring new places, like she did when she was little with Nori, but on a much larger and more dangerous scale.

She's still a silent, brooding figure, and quite wary of strangers, and tend to only speak when spoken to. Gaining her trust is hard and she rarely stays in the same place twice. Yet she's kept her curious nature, and grown quite a fondness of new, shiny loot.


..... i have a murderhobo now <3